AHMEDABAD: In a landmark verdict, the Ahmedabad City Sessions Court has convicted 14 accused, including former BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya and senior Gujarat police officials, in the infamous 2018 Bitcoin extortion case.
The case, which began with the kidnapping of Surat-based builder and cryptocurrency trader Shailesh Bhatt, revealed a murky nexus of politicians, police officers and middlemen in Gujarat.
The Bitcoin scandal that shook Gujarat in 2018 has finally reached closure. The Ahmedabad City Sessions Court on Friday convicted 14 accused, among them former BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya, then Amreli SP Jagdish Patel, and then LCB PI Anant Patel, holding them guilty of alleged kidnapping and extortion in the multi-crore Bitcoin racket.
Following Shailesh Bhatt’s explosive complaint, CID Crime swung into action, arresting all the accused linked to the Bitcoin scandal. The trial unfolded in the ACB Special Court of the City Civil and Sessions Court, Ahmedabad, where the state lined up a staggering 172 witnesses against them.
In stark contrast, the defence could produce just one witness, and despite 92 witnesses allegedly turning hostile, the court found the evidence and arguments strong enough to seal the fate of the accused.
After nearly three months of intense final arguments, the gavel came down heavy as the court sentenced all 14 accused in the sensational scam to life imprisonment.
The case traces back to Surat builder Shailesh Bhatt, who was allegedly trading in cryptocurrencies. In February 2018, Bhatt was lured under threats from individuals claiming to be from the CBI office in Gandhinagar. Instead of a warning, he was allegedly kidnapped from a petrol pump, beaten up, and dragged to a farmhouse by a team led by Amreli police officials using government vehicles.
Once in custody of his abductors, Bhatt was allegedly coerced into parting with 176 Bitcoins worth around ₹9 crore, and was later forced to transfer more digital currency and cash. The demands spiralled from ₹12 crore transferred to Anant Patel’s account, to another ₹50 crore extortion attempt, and eventually a ₹32 crore ransom routed through the Angadia network.
However, the Bitcoin extortion was not a one-way story. Bhatt himself carried a chequered past. He had earlier been accused of allegedly kidnapping BitConnect company’s employees and recovering 2,021 Bitcoins, 11,000 Litecoins, and over ₹14 crore after allegedly losing ₹1.14 crore in crypto investments. His own complaint, however, blew the lid on a bigger scandal implicating police officers and politicians.
As investigations deepened, CID Crime arrested 10 police personnel, including Anant Patel and Surat-based lawyer Ketan Patel. Interrogations revealed the names of then SP Jagdish Patel and former MLA Nalin Kotadiya. Kotadiya, accused of playing the “fixer” in the racket, went underground. A non-bailable warrant was issued before he was finally arrested from Maharashtra’s Dhulia and later granted conditional bail in 2019.
The net widened further when CBI Inspector Sunil Nair was also accused of allegedly demanding a ₹10 crore bribe from Bhatt, threatening to unleash ED and Income Tax probes on him. Bhatt claimed he paid ₹4.6 crore after settling the demand at ₹5 crore.
Now, after years of courtroom battles, the special court in Ahmedabad has brought closure. With 14 convicted, including top cops, a CBI officer, lawyers, and a former legislator, the verdict has laid bare the dangerous collusion of crime, cryptocurrency, and corridors of power in Gujarat.