Former BJP MLA Nalin Kotadia arrested in bitcoin extortion case

Former BJP MLA Nalin Kotadia, who was declared a proclaimed offender in the Rs 9.95 crore bitcoin extortion case of Surat, has been arrested by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch, police said on Sunday. He was arrested from Maharashtra's Dhuliya, ANI reported. 

Kotadiya, the former MLA from Dhari, had been absconding ever since his name cropped up in May during the interrogation of Kirit Paladiya, the mastermind in the kidnapping of Shailesh Bhatt and extortion of 176 bitcoins. A manhunt was launched after he failed to appear despite several summons. 

The CID first served summons on Kotadiya on May 4. Officers issued more summons after they didn't receive any response from the former MLA. On May 7, Kotadiya released a press statement claiming that he was being "framed by the conspirators". 

He also claimed that Shailesh Bhatt was the main conspirator and that he had also kidnapped two investors and extorted 2,300 bitcoins from them.

On May 9, Kotadiya also faxed a letter to the CID Crime and in which he pleaded the officials to not to carry out the third summons since he was allegedly out of station and would only be able to return on May 11 or 12. 

He was declared a proclaimed offender in June after the  CID (Crime) moved an Ahmedabad court seeking the same. The court accepted CID's application and declared the ex-MLA as a proclaimed offender, and directed him to appear before it within 30 days.

According to officials, a team of Amreli police had abducted Surat-based builder Shailesh Bhatt, and his associate and Kotadiya's nephew Kirit Paladiya, in a bid to extort bitcoins from him, on February 11. Subsequent investigations show that Paladiya was the mastermind of the conspiracy, and had made a deal with SP Jagdish Patel and others to extort the crypto-currency from Bhatt and to share the spoils. A total of 176 bitcoins, worth Rs 10 lakh, were extorted from Bhatt.

The former MLA allegedly received Rs 66 lakh of the money that was extorted from Bhatt. Of this Rs 25 lakh was recovered from his nephew in May. 

However, in yet another twist in the case, cops registered a case against original complainant Bhatt. According to the complaint, days before his own abduction, Bhatt had abducted one Dhaval Mavani, who was running a crypto-currency firm in Surat, on February 1, and extorted Rs 155 crore from him.