Crime branch nabs one accused in cryptocurrency fraud case

VADODARA: A day after registering offence, the detection of crime branch (DCB) has nabbed one of the accused in the cryptocurrency racket from the city.

Hiren Thakkar, a resident of Diwalipura, had disappeared after locking his house, but he was nabbed after DCB sleuths received a tip-off about his whereabouts. He has been remanded to police custody by a local court for two days. Police said that other five accused are on the run.

“During questioning, Thakkar said that he was a mutual fund agent and advised people about financial investments. In September last year, he joined the Pay Way Coin Company as an employee and he was paid Rs 77,000 per month towards salary,” said Jaydeepsinh Jadeja, deputy commissioner of police (crime). Thakkar’s job was to contact prospective investors and bring them to the seminars organized by the company.

“Once the prospective investors attended the seminars, the accused used to convince them about investing in cryptocurrency. The accused sold pay way coin at Rs 7 a piece and promised that the prices would touch Rs 100 per piece in four months,” Jadeja told TOI.

Close to 80 citizens were sold over two lakh pay way coins worth Rs 17.18 lakh. The investors, however, didn’t get any returns for some months following which they approached the accused. The accused promised them better returns but later shut down Pay Way Coin Company and started another firm named Brio Hydroponics. When the investors again demanded their money, they refused and instead threatened them. The complainants earlier approached Gotri police station but the case was later handed over to cybercrime cell in DCB.

The other accused identified as Praveen Patel, who is the mastermind, Kamal Joshi, Mihir Pathak, Jayanti Patel and Haresh Limbani, are yet to be nabbed.

“The accused’s office at Ganesh Meridien on SG Highway in Ahmedabad is locked. After the news about the fraud case surfaced, the accused have disappeared. We have formed four teams to track them down,” Jadeja said. The police said that the accused may have cheated many more people from different cities in the state.