E-Paper
Man abducted for not getting returns in Crypto investment
The accused had invested money in German cryptocurrency on Kazi’s advice. Due to technical glitches, the monthly returns were not deposited in the account for the last three months
Pune:
A 40-year-old man from Pimpri-Chinchwad was allegedly abducted and held captive by a group of people known to him as he failed to provide assured returns on cryptocurrency investment, police said.
The incident happened between April 26 and 27 at a hotel in Deccan and Phaltan in Satara district.
The accused have been identified by the Deccan police as Ajinkya Kadam, Vaibhav Kadam, Shreyas Kadam, Rahul Nimbalkar, Manoj Bhagat, and Abhimanyu Ghanwat, along with their three accomplices. All the accused are on the run, police informed.
According to police, the complainant Sameer Kazi and the accused were acquainted with each other. The accused had invested money in German cryptocurrency on Kazi’s advice. Due to technical glitches, the monthly returns were not deposited in the account for the last three months.
However, the accused believed Kazi was responsible for the delay.
Hence, on April 26, the accused allegedly threatened Kazi with a knife at Hotel Shubham in the Deccan area, abused him, and assaulted him.
The group demanded ₹65 lakh, which they had invested in the German cryptocurrency. They forcefully made Kazi sit in their car and drove him to Hotel Maharaja at Phaltan. They then confined him to the hotel throughout the night and later took him to an unknown farmhouse at Phaltan.
According to police, the next day, the accused took Kazi to the registrar’s office and forcefully prepared a purchase deed of Kazi’s flat at Laxmi Nagar in Phaltan in favour of Manoj Bhagat.
They threatened Kazi that he would be killed if he told anyone about the incident and later released him.
Kazi returned to Pune and lodged a complaint with the police. The police have registered a case against the accused under relevant Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for wrongful confinement, extortion, robbery, criminal intimidation, and criminal conspiracy. The police are actively searching for the accused, and further investigation is underway.
