Indian court denies bail in $240M crypto fraud case

An Indian high court has denied the bail application of a suspect involved in a crypto investment fraud worth Rs. 2,000 crore (approximately $240 million). The suspect, Abishek Sharma, is an Una resident and one of the key accused in the crypto scam that duped about 80,000 investors in Himachal and neighboring states.

While dismissing his bail plea, the judge considered the severity of the offense and its impact on society. “The investigation, prima facie, revealed that the petitioner was a close associate of the main accused, Subhash Sharma, who absconded and moved out of India,” the bench, headed by Justice Sushil Kukreja, said while dismissing the bail petition.

The court noted that even though Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees a speedy trial and a suspect on trial cannot be detained or held for an indefinite period, the fact of the matter is that the trial is not likely to be concluded in the near future. The court added that this does not qualify the petitioner for bail as he is prima facie found to be involved in an economic offense on an extensive scale.

Indian high court denies suspect linked to crypto investment fraud bail

Justice Kukreja also pointed out that even though the petitioner Sharma has been in custody since October 2023, his counsel has failed to provide a substantial change in the details surrounding his circumstances after the dismissal of an earlier bail application, which would have seen Sharma being released on bail. The court also held that the offenses are grave, as they affect the country and are taken seriously.

According to the Indian police, the multi-million dollar fraud started in 2018, but came to the attention of authorities when one of its investors, Arun Singh Guleria, registered an FIR in September 2023 at the Palampur police station in Kangra district. The complainant mentioned that a group of individuals, including Subash Sharma, Hem Raj, Sukhdev, Milan Garg, and Abishek Sharma, were involved in fraudulent activities related to digital assets in Himachal Pradesh.

On the advice of Subash, the complainant and others invested funds in a website called voscrow, allegedly being run by the individuals. He mentioned that they were offered digital assets in return for their investments. Sukhdev, along with other promoters of the platform, allegedly cheated the public through the platform, using another one called Hypenext to also promise investors that their funds would be doubled.

Investigations reveal the modus operandi of the group

Reports noted that over 1,000 state police personnel were among the victims who lost funds to the fraudulent platform. On September 26, 2023, a special investigation team, headed by DIG of the northern range, Dharamshala, was created to investigate various cryptocurrency-related fraud transactions across the country. The Indian police were able to apprehend all the other suspects in the case, except for Subhash, who they said had left the country.

The investigation revealed the modus operandi of the group, noting that they played on the innocence of their victims by offering them high rewards for their investments. They also created a network of people who recruited new investors, keeping a chain that made the investment look like a Ponzi scheme. In addition, the group was said to have given them crypto prices that they had manipulated, causing the investors several degrees of losses.

The Indian police also said that during the investigation, they discovered that Abishek, the petitioner, was in charge of hosting several gatherings with investors across the state. The investor gathering happened at different locations, including Una, Kullu, Mandi, Baddi, Chandigarh, Palampur, and Hamirpur. It was also revealed that the individuals created several shell companies to launder the stolen funds, with some of them spending the proceeds on properties and other luxury and high-end items.

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