India arrests two suspects in BitConnect scam case, involved in kidnapping and Bitcoin extortion case

PANews January 25th Report, according to India Today, the Indian law enforcement agency has arrested two individuals related to the BitConnect cryptocurrency scam case, which involves fraud, kidnapping, and extortion on a global scale, with the involved amount reaching thousands of bitcoins and tens of millions of rupees in cash. The arrested Nikunj Pravinbhai Bhatt and Sanjay Kotadia are suspected of participating in a kidnapping and extortion case, where the victim was forced to surrender 2254 bitcoins, 11,000 Litecoin, and approximately 1.45 billion rupees in cash. Some of the extorted bitcoins were converted into ETH and USDT and transferred through multiple wallets. The Indian law enforcement agency has frozen and seized assets worth about 1.9 billion rupees, including cryptocurrencies, stocks, and cash; as of now, the total seized or frozen assets in this case amount to approximately 217 billion rupees. The investigation is still ongoing. The Indian law enforcement agency stated that BitConnect markets itself as a high-yield investment platform, claiming that its self-developed volatility trading robot can generate returns of up to 40% per month. The agency said these claims are purely fictitious, aimed at creating a false illusion of growth, including posting about 1% fake daily returns on its website.