Vadodara: The detection of crime branch (DCB) has formed three different teams to track down five persons accused in the cryptocurrency fraud.
While one of the accused has been arrested, five others who stay in Ahmedabad, Mehsana and Surat are yet to be nabbed. Police said that they have got some clues about those on the run.
“The teams have been deployed in Ahmedabad, Surat and Mehsana to nab the accused. We will track them down soon,” said Jaydeepsinh Jadeja, deputy commissioner of police (crime). The absconding accused are Praveen Patel, who is the mastermind of the racekt, Kamal Joshi, Mihir Pathak, Jayanti Patel and Haresh Limbani.
DCB has arrested Hiren Thakkar who revealed the modus operandi of the accused. Thakkar, who worked as a financial advisor, was hired by the prime accused in their firm Pay Way Coin Company.
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 apiece and promised that the prices would touch Rs 100 per piece in four months.
About 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. 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, the accused refused and instead threatened them.
