Rs 90 lakh gone as man’s Bitcoin hopes bite dust

DCP (southwest) Milind Mahadeo Dumbre said they “will take assistance of the cyber cell unit if required”.

Ali had met the accused — brothers Dev Kant, Ravi Kant and Arun Kant — at the Vasant Vihar branch of a private bank. “They claimed to be Bitcoin businessmen and told me about cryptocurrency. I first invested Rs 54,000 and got around Rs 6.5 lakh in return. I thought it was the real deal.” The accused then asked him to invest that money, and in three months, he made Rs 9.75 lakh.

Then came the final offer. “They asked me to invest Rs 91.2 lakh lakh, promising a 5% discount and a growth of three times,” Ali said. He dipped into his savings, and asked his brother, relatives and even neighbours for cash.

The accused told Ali the money would be transferred to China and the Bitcoins would reflect in his e-wallet account. One of the accused said once the money is “converted to cash”, he would retrieve it from Dubai.

Ali handed over the money in Karol Bagh, where he waited at a mobile recharge shop till 11 pm before the owner asked him to leave. “They brothers then told me to book a hotel room in Paharganj.”

When Ali didn’t get Bitcoins the next day, the accused said their father was ill, and gave him a cheque for Rs 91.2 lakh before leaving the hotel. When Ali tried to encash the cheque, it bounced.