Kidnapping, Bitcoin extortion case: ‘SP gave 40 lakh for accused cops’
The SP was arrested following Inspector Anant Patel’s statement that the kidnapping and extortion bid happened on his senior’s instruction.
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Jagdish Patel at Ahmedabad sessions court, Tuesday. (Express Photo by Javed Raja)
The Gujarat CID-Crime, which is probing the alleged kidnapping of a Surat-based builder and extortion of Bitcoins and money from him, has found that the Amreli district Superintendent of Police Jagdish Patel allegedly gave Rs 40 lakh to Local Crime Branch Inspector Anant Patel to meet the legal expenses of the nine policemen arrested in the case. The SP, who was arrested on Monday, is the key accused in the case along with Inspector Anant.
The CID officials have also found that at least six suspected policemen flew to Mumbai on February 11, hours after the alleged kidnapping and extortion incident. On the basis of these findings, the CID has sought the remand of the SP, who was produced before a sessions court on Tuesday. The court has remanded Jagdish Patel in CID custody till May 1.
The SP was arrested following Inspector Anant Patel’s statement that the kidnapping and extortion bid happened on his senior’s instruction. The police teams, which allegedly kidnapped the builder, had come in official vehicles on the order of the SP, Anant reportedly told the investigators.
The CID has proved that the policemen from Amreli came to Gandhinagar in official vehicles but there was no record with the state police control or anywhere else showing that they came officially. In his statement, Anant Patel has also claimed that on April 6, Jagdish Patel gave him Rs 40 lakh at around 8.30 pm at Sindhu Bhawan Road in Ahmedabad to meet the legal expenses for the accused policemen.
Surat builder Shailesh Bhatt had complained that on February 11, he was abducted from Nidhi petrol pump in Gandhinagar by five to six policemen, including one Assistant Sub-Inspector Sanjaybhai Padmani, four head constables — Babubhai Der, Umed Mehta, Suresh Khuman and Nurbhai Mohammedbhai — and one constable, Vijaybhai Vadher, who were in uniform and came in police jeeps. Other accused policemen — constables Jagdish Jankat, Mayur Mangroliya and Pratap Der — were in plainclothes.
The accused policemen allegedly took Bhatt, his friend and his driver to a farmhouse owned jointly by Hasmukh, Jayesh and Haresh Gurjar. The accused allegedly forced Bhatt’s friend Kirit Paladiya to transfer 200 Bitcoins worth Rs 12 crore from his digital wallet — 176 Bitcoins were sent from Bhatt’s phone and 24 from Paladiya’s phone to the phone of a relative of another accused, Ketan Patel. This transaction is yet to be proved. The policemen are also accused of trying to extort Rs 32 crore from the builder through angadia (courier) firms — P M Angadia and P Umesh.
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