Saralnama
The Ahmedabad City Sessions Court's ACB Special Court on Friday sentenced 14 accused, including former BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya, former Amreli SP Jagdish Patel, and ex-police inspector Anant Patel, to life imprisonment in the 2018 Bitcoin kidnapping and extortion case. Surat-based builder Shailesh Bhatt had alleged that Amreli police officers, with political involvement, kidnapped him and extorted Bitcoins worth crores by detaining him at a farmhouse. The case involved the transfer of 200 Bitcoins valued at around ₹12 crore and an attempted ransom demand of ₹32 crore. CID investigations confirmed the conspiracy, implicating Kotadiya and several police officials. Kotadiya was arrested in September 2018 from Dhule, Maharashtra, after being declared absconding. The trial included testimony from 172 witnesses, leading to the conviction despite some witnesses turning hostile. The case exposed a nexus between politicians, police, and middlemen in Gujarat's cryptocurrency racket, marking a significant verdict in the state's financial crime history. (Updated 29 Aug 2025, 16:11 IST; source: link)