The sessions court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to a 58-year-old man from Dahisar, Laxman Chavan, accused of cheating 310 investors to the tune of Rs3.12 crore by luring them to invest in Bitcoins with good returns.
As per the case lodged with Dahisar police station, the complainant met Chavan in an office in Dahisar on September 27, 2021. Chavan claimed they were into trading under BITxStaking.com and SJAB Digital Solution LLP. The complainant was allegedly promised daily earnings on investment. On that day, he transferred Rs8,000 into Chavan’s account. On January 5, 2022, he claimed to have invested Rs1.20 lakh in the name of his wife and Rs8,000 in the name of his son. Besides, he alsoasked his friends and relatives to invest with Chavan.
It was claimed that till February 2022, the investors received the agreed earnings. However, Chavan stopped paying in March 2022 and the app downloaded on his instructions also shut down. With investors demanding their money back, Chavan’s company stopped functioning. However, Chavan pleaded innocence and claimed he had no role to play in the scheme. He sought anticipatory bail, saying that his custodial interrogation was not needed.
The prosecution objected to Chavan’s plea, stating that he had opened a website and gave user IDs and passwords to investors. After accepting money from depositors, the website was closed down, leaving no trace of the investments alleged to have been made.
The court noted that prima facie Chavan convinced the complainant and other investors to invest in the schemes floated by his company, which accepted payments to the GPay account.
While rejecting Chavan’s bail plea, the court, prima facie, noted his involvement in attracting the investors and said that it is necessaryfor the investigating officer to trace the investor deposits for which custodial interrogation is needed.
