Two Gujarat residents were arrested in Bengaluru for cheating a city-based businessman of Rs 3.5 crore on the pretext of helping him invest in cryptocurrency.
The two arrested have been identified as Piyushbhai Himmatlal Soni and Rajeshbhai Dhirajlal Soni, while the prime accused in the case, Kunal Anup Chandrana, is absconding.
According to a senior police officer, businessman Gowtham’s friend Ramesh T V had claimed that he had made profits in cryptocurrency trading and encouraged Gowtham to invest in the same. In his complaint, Gowtham said that “as he lacked knowledge in cryptocurrency, he sought Ramesh’s help to befriend Chandrana who claimed to be an expert”.
On May 15, Gowtham transferred Rs 3.5 crore to two bank accounts provided by Chandrana to purchase cryptocurrency. However, Chandrana neither bought cryptocurrency nor returned the money, leading Gowtham to file a complaint with South Cyber, Economic and Narcotics (CEN) police station.
After police called Chandrana to appear before them, he approached a local court, seeking anticipatory bail. On August 10, the court rejected the bail plea and said, “The investigation officer must recover the currency and record his statement.” Meanwhile, police managed to trace Piyushbhai and Rajeshbhai and said a probe is underway.
