Pune: The next day the hijackers let the crypto trader go. (Representative)
Mumbai:
A police constable has been arrested along with seven accomplices on charges of kidnapping a local cryptocurrency trader and demanding a $40 million bitcoin ransom, officials said on Wednesday.
Dilip Tukaram Khandare had learned that a Pune accomplice had a lucrative bitcoin wallet and planned to kidnap him.
He and his co-conspirators allegedly abducted 38-year-old Vinay Naik on January 14 and demanded that he take away his entire digital currency holdings, worth Rs 300 crore ($40 million), as well as 8, Transfer Rs. 00,000 in cash.
Mr Naik was abruptly released the next day when the kidnappers realized the police were on their tail, and the perpetrators were taken into custody on Tuesday.
“We have detained eight people, including a police constable, who planned the kidnapping,” a senior police officer confirmed to AFP news agency.
Cryptocurrency in India remains largely unregulated, despite the rise of local trading platforms and lucrative celebrity endorsements attracting millions of new traders.
Rising Markets was banned in 2018 following a rise in fraudulent transactions, but the ban was lifted by the Supreme Court two years later.
The Center this week announced a 30 per cent tax on profits from virtual currencies and the introduction of a “digital rupee” backed by the Reserve Bank of India.
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