Four cops among eight arrested in Himachal crypto scam

These eight persons who were arrested on Saturday are among the 70 to 80 imposters who earned more than ₹2 crore each from nearly one lakh investors, director general of police Sanjay Kundu said

The special investigation team (SIT) probing the multi-crore cryptocurrency scam has arrested eight more persons, including four police personnel and a forest guard, in connection with the case, officials said on Sunday.

One woman constable was among the four police personnel arrested, said Abhishek Dular, deputy inspector general of police (DIG North), who heads the SIT.

These eight persons who were arrested on Saturday are among the 70 to 80 imposters who earned more than ₹2 crore each from nearly one lakh investors, director general of police Sanjay Kundu told news agency PTI.

One woman constable was among the four police personnel arrested, said Abhishek Dular, deputy inspector general of police (DIG North), who heads the SIT

So far, 18 persons including some of the main accused -- Hemraj and Sukhdev from Mandi and Arun Guleria and Abhishekh from Una -- have been arrested, the DGP said.

“We are now coming to the second layer where people who earned crores from the investment made by new people into the scheme,” he said.

The four cops arrested are constable Naresh Kumar, a resident of Kangra; Sunil Kumar, warden of Una’s Bangarh jail; Balveer Singh of 4th Indian Reserve Battalion, Jangalberi, and woman constable Jyoti Kumari. She was posted at police post in Hamripur’s Jahu

Neil Dhimant, Krishna Dutt and Gurdeep Singh and forest guard Ram Kumar Rana have also been put behind bars. Sources in the state police said constable Jyoti Kumari played a key role in the scheme and lured several people to invest in the scheme.

The Himachal police is co-ordinating with central and financial agencies and other state police, the DGP said.

Action is being taken against them under the Banning of Unregulated Deposits Schemes (BUDS) Act, 2019, the police said.

However, the kingpin of the scam Subhash Sharma from Sarkaghat in Mandi is still at large. Over 300 complaints have been received in connection with the multi-crore cryptocurrency ponzi scam that began in the state in 2018.

Fraudsters approached people with an investment plan related to a locally made (in Mandi district) cryptocurrency known as “Korvio Coin” or KRO coins. Three to four kinds of cryptocurrency were used and false websites in which the cryptocurrency prices were manipulated and inflated were created. Cryptocurrency is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not dependent on any central authority, such as the government or bank to uphold or maintain it.

The website used for the crypto-scam had around 2.5 lakh different IDs. The accused used a combination of misinformation, deception and threats to maintain control over the scheme causing huge financial losses to the victims.Over a thousand police personnel have also fallen victim to the fraud. While a majority of them were duped of crores of rupees, some of them made huge gains by creating chains by roping in more investors and opted for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), and became its promoters.

With inputs from agencies