NEW DELHI: The CBI on Wednesday registered an FIR naming six persons as accused and began its probe into an alleged Maharashtra ‘bitcoin scam’ case amounting to Rs 6,600 crore and called one among them for questioning, officials said.
The central probe agency initiated the probe following a Supreme Court order in connection with the case, they added.
The CBI has alleged that two accused - Amit Bharadwaj and Ajay Bharadwaj – were the mastermind in the case and they have been named in the FIR along with four others. Incidentally, while Amit died of a heart attack earlier, Ajay is a fugitive, who is on the lookout by multiple agencies. The CBI has summoned Gaurav Mehta, another accused in the case, and asked him to appear before the investigating officer at the earliest, they said.
Earlier, the ED had filed its FIRs against the Bhardwaj brothers in Delhi, Pune and a few other places for allegedly cheating investors. The ED initiated the basis of a case on the basis of Maharashtra Police’s Economic Offence Wing’s FIR.
It is to be noted here that the CBI’s probe came a day after BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi played audio clips at a press conference, accusing NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole of conspiring with a former police commissioner and a dealer to indulge in illegal bitcoin transactions.
However, Sule has denied the BJP’s accusation, saying it was not her voice in the recording and accused the Saffron party of doing “cheap politics”.
“I am an honest and straightforward servant of the country. I have spoken against bitcoin in Parliament. Nana Patole has also filed a complaint. The person who made the allegations was in jail. The BJP is defaming me and this is a fake allegation against me. I have sent a notice to them,” she is reported to have said.