Cryptocurrency fraud: Pune police file charge sheet against ex-IPS officer, cyber expert

Pune: The Pune police have filed a charge sheet in a court here against a former IPS officer and a cyber expert in connection with an alleged multi-crore cryptocurrency fraud, an official said on Tuesday.

In March this year, the police here in Maharashtra had arrested former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Ravindra Patil and cyber expert Pankaj Ghode, who were roped in by the police to help them in cracking cryptocurrency fraud cases.

The duo, however, allegedly cheated the investigators by fraudulently transferring money worth crores from digital wallets to their accounts, the police had said. "We filed an over 4,400-page charge sheet against Patil and Ghode in a court here on Monday," Shivajinagar cyber police station's inspector Ankush Chintaman said.

Patil, who had taken voluntary retirement from the Indian Police Service, and Ghode were roped in by the Pune police to investigate two cryptocurrency cases registered in 2018 as digital currency was a technical issue.

The police had alleged that Patil, during the course of the investigation, transferred some of the cryptocurrencies in his account and Ghode provided screenshots of the accounts to police by manipulating the figures.

Patil and Ghode's role got exposed during the investigation by senior officials. The duo allegedly used data provided by the police for technical analysis for their benefit, the police had said.

As per the investigation into the case, Ghode manipulated the screenshots ostensibly showing less amount in crypto wallets and submitted them to the police.