Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil*

BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.
The finger of suspicion of this massive scam of illegal cryptocurrency directly points to several top BJP leaders and a “mastermind" -- absconding Gujarat BJP leader and ex- MLA Nalin Kotadiya. The modus operandi of this scam is multilayered and is like a Pandora’s box – whereby illegal Hawala transactions, kidnappings, extortion of crypto currency using CBI/police/government authorities at the behest of top BJP leaders in Gujarat is a norm.
The menacing maze of this mega Bitcoin scam has been estimated by the Gujarat CID at more than Rs 50,00 crore, though many vernacular news reports and independent blogs on internet place the value at Rs 88,000 crore.

Factual matrix

1. The mega Bitcoin scam began from a complaint made by one Shailesh Bhatt to Gujarat’s minister of state (MoS) for home Pradeepsinh Jadeja, who himself has deep links with absconding BJP ex-MLA Kotadia. Gujarat’s Amreli district police reportedly extorted 200 Bitcoins (Rs 10 crore) and demanded Rs 32 crore in cash from Bhatt.
2. Investigation agencies found that the CCTV footage of Amreli district police involved in extortion is true, leading to the arrest of Amreli police superintendent of police Jagdish Patel and police inspector Anant Patel, along with an accomplice PI and 10 constables. CID then discovered that the mastermind of this mega Bitcoin scam is no other than BJP's Kotadiya.
3. Even as the police/CID search the whereabouts of the mastermind, Kotadiya is absconding, but in a video footage appears where he is found saying that, if he is arrested, he would reveal damning evidence exposing top BJP leaders in the state -- those who were converting black money into white during demonetisation.
4. CID crime, Gujarat, is trying to pressurize the witnesses of this case for political reasons. Surprisingly, a second complaint filed by CID crime says that the main accused is Shailesh Bhatt, which was not the case earlier. Instead of making him the complainant in the first case, CID, at the behest of MoS (home), made police "the complainant".
5. Shockingly, Shailesh Bhatt kidnapped one Piyush Savalia, who was associated with Bitconnect, on January 30, and released the latter two days later. Bhatt then kidnapped Dhaval Mavani, who was able to transfer 2,256 Bitcoins worth Rs 131 crore to Bhatt, securing his release. Bhatt secured another Rs 10 crore worth of Bitcoins before being stung by Amreli police.
6. It is intriguing that the Modi government sent in CBI/ED/government authorities to hound Gujarat Congress MLAs as well Karnataka Congress candidates during state polls when the electoral code of conduct was on, but has not bothered to investigate this mega Bitcoin scam, whose mastermind is a BJP leader. Kotadiya himself has made serious allegations of how top BJP leaders are linked with this entire saga of illicit money transactions.

Questions:

1. At whose behest did the Amreli police extort Bitcoins and other cash through middlemen from investors? Why did the investigation agencies not make Shailesh Bhatt a complainant in the FIR that was filed in the first case?
2. The complainant himself stated in his statement that CBI inspector Sunil Nair extorted Rs 5 crore from him to not initiate any action. Why has Sunil Nair has not been made an accused but has been transferred from Gujarat to the North-East?
3. Who are the ‘top BJP leaders’ against whom Kotadiya has damning evidence?
4. Why are the CBI/ED/Central authorities not investigating this mega Bitcoin scam? Who are they sheltering? What is the cover-up?
5. Was Modi’s demonetisation used to cover in orer to convert black money into white by BJP leaders in Gujarat, and dupe investors through multiple extortion of illicit money?
6. If Modi government can send CBI/ED to investigate Congress leaders in Karnataka, before and during elections, what prevents it from investigating its own?
There should be an impartial Supreme Court-monitored judicial invetigation in this maze of mega Bitcoin scam, so that the truth comes out.
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*National spokesperson, All-India Congress Committee