On the eve of the important state elections, corruption accusations have been levelled at the Maharashtra Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party wing. State Congress chief Nana Patole and Mr. Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule have been charged by retired police officer Ravindranath Patil with involvement in a bitcoin fraud investigation that began in 2018. The funds, he alleged, have been used for campaigning in the assembly election. The night before the election, Supriya Sule referred to it as the “familiar tactics of spreading false information to manipulate the righteous voters” and denied any wrongdoing.
The BJP promptly took notice of the accusations and provided the media with audio tapes that it said demonstrated Nana Patole and Supriya Sule’s involvement in the “bitcoin scam.”
The development has “unmasked” the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, according to BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, who also called for responses from the Congress and Ms. Sule, a Lok Sabha member from Baramati.
“I am amused that elections have come down to such a level,” Supriya Sule told news agency. “Sudhanshu Trivedi made five allegations and asked me five questions and they (the allegations) are all false. I am happy to sit with him in any public forum — place time and forum of his choice. It is all false and I have lodged a cybercrime complaint. I have nothing to do with any transfer of bitcoin… this shows the BJP’s desperation,” she added.
The Pune police, in collaboration with cyber expert Pankaj Ghode, recruited Mr. Patil, who had voluntarily retired from the Indian Police Service, to look into a few bitcoin cases that were filed in 2018.
According to the police, Mr. Patil moved some cryptocurrency into his account while they were conducting their investigation. Ghode sent police screenshots of the accounts by altering the numbers, which revealed that there was less money in the cryptocurrency wallets.
According to news agency, Mr. Patil informed reporters that he was framed, and he and his colleagues looked into it.
He asserted that Gaurav Mehta, a key witness in the case and an audit firm employee, had informed him about the 2018 bitcoin fraud investigation.
Mehta has claimed that a Bitcoin-containing hardware wallet was taken when cryptocurrency trader Amit Bhardwaj was arrested. However, another wallet was used in its place, purportedly at the behest of Amitabh Gupta, the Pune Police Commissioner at the time.
Mehta asserted that Gupta and his group were the true offenders and that Patil and his associates were wrongfully detained. He also claimed that he was the one who provided him with the information regarding Nana Patole and Supriya Sule.
Mehta sent multiple voice recordings on the social media app “Signal,” Patil said the news agency, including messages from Supriya Sule asking for money in exchange for Bitcoin. According to the recordings, Sule told Mehta that they would take care of the probe after they took power, so she didn’t need to worry about it.
According to reports, Nana Patole asked why the cash transaction was delayed on another tape. IANS has the audio messages, but the organisation does not attest to the authenticity of the recordings.
