Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 | ED raids audit firm employee amid charges of Bitcoin use polls; records his statement

The BJP on Tuesday played purported voice notes of NCP (SP) leader and Baramati MP Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole alleging attempts were being made to encash Bitcoins to influence the elections.

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted searches at the Chhattisgarh premises of an auditing company employee, allegedly linked to a political Bitcoin transactions case in Maharashtra, as part of a money laundering probe, official sources said.

The house of Gaurav Mehta in Chhattisgarh's capital city Raipur is being covered under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

The agency questioned him and recorded his statement during the searches. It also seized some computers and digital devices.

Mehta has also been summoned by the CBI as part of its probe into an alleged cryptocurrency case.

The ED action came on a day the polling for the Maharashtra Assembly elections was held. In the polls, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is facing a tough challenge from the NCP (SP), Shiv Sena (UT) and Congress alliance known as Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

The alleged role of Mehta surfaced on Tuesday when the BJP in poll-bound Maharashtra played purported voice notes of NCP (SP) leader and Baramati MP Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole, alleging attempts were being made to encash Bitcoins to influence the elections.

ED sources said the agency has widened its ongoing money laundering probe into a crypto (Bitcoin) assets ponzi scam and is investigating the "links" of Mehta and some others with politicians, bureaucrats and politically exposed persons.

The agency attached assets worth Rs 98 crore of actor Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra in April as part of this crypto-ponzi probe. The couple challenged the ED action and got relief from the Bombay High Court.

Sharing some audio clips on the Signal app, in which voices and chats purportedly of Sule and Patole allegedly indicate that Bitcoins were used for funding the poll campaign, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi claimed it was clear the MVA has seen the writing on the wall that it will be defeated in the polls.

Sule has denied the charges and said she has filed a complaint with the Election Commission and the cybercrime department of the state against the false allegations. She told reporters on Wednesday that she "did not know Gaurav Mehta".

Patole also dismissed the BJP's allegations and said, "The voice in the clip being circulated is not mine. Even (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi recognises my voice."

The ED's probe in the crypto-ponzi case stems from Maharashtra and Delhi Police's FIRs against Variable Tech Pvt Ltd, late Amit Bhardwaj, Ajay Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj, Simpy Bhardwaj and Mahender Bhardwaj; and a number of multi-level marketing agents who allegedly collected funds in the form of Bitcoins (worth Rs 6,600 crore in 2017) from the public with the "false promise" of 10 per cent monthly return in the form of the cryptocurrency.

It was alleged by the ED that the Bitcoins were supposed to be utilised for mining and investors were supposed to get huge returns in crypto assets but the promoters "cheated" them and have been concealing the "ill-gotten" Bitcoins in obscure online wallets.

Kundra, the ED alleged, received 285 Bitcoins from the "mastermind" and promoter of Gain Bitcoin Ponzi "scam" Amit Bhardwaj for "setting up" a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine.

These Bitcoins were sourced from the "proceeds of crime" collected by Amit Bhardwaj from gullible investors, it said.

The agency arrested three people -- Simpy Bhardwaj, Nitin Gaur and Nikhil Mahajan -- in the case last year.

The main accused Ajay Bhardwaj and Mahendra Bhardwaj are absconding, the ED said, adding it has attached properties worth Rs 69 crore in the case earlier.

Two chargesheets have been filed in the case till now -- the first in June 2019 and the second in February this year.

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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