Police had arrested Ashish Malik and Sandeep Kaushik for allegedly setting up a multi-level marketing racket and selling cryptocurrency (Representational Image)
It took four months for the cyber cell unit of the Delhi Police Crime Branch to gather evidence against the two men behind the ‘Rosneft hedge fund’ cryptocurrency racket. The reason: lack of digital footprint left by the accused, confusion over whether the cryptocurrency was Indian or foreign, and lack of documentation by the complainants.
Police had arrested Ashish Malik and Sandeep Kaushik for allegedly setting up a multi-level marketing racket and selling cryptocurrency, after claiming that they were associated with Russia’s premier petroleum company, Rosneft. The accused had launched two cryptocurrencies and had made more than a thousand people invest with the promise of high interest rates.
Cyber analyst Priya Sankhla, who advised the Delhi Police on the Kash Coin cryptocurrency racket in which a 32-year-old was arrested last year, said the time taken to probe such a racket depends on documents provided by the complainant. Police said the two complainants in the case, and other victims, dealt in cash, which is difficult to trace.
Also, the accused had organised seminars abroad, which left investigators confused about whether the cryptocurrency was Indian or foreign. “If it is foreign, all we can do is request the host country and hope for a reply. In this case, even the servers were in a foreign country,” an officer said.
What helped police were videos of the seminar uploaded by the accused on their YouTube channel, Facebook page and other websites. Eventually, police managed to trace their cell phones and arrested them from Dwarka. “But the main accused is absconding,” DCP (Cyber Cell and FICN) Bhisham Singh said.