Police on Friday raided a hotel near Vani Vihar here where a conference was underway to lure people to invest in Bitcoin.
The Saheed Nagar police detained two persons, including a businessman from Gujarat identified as Hitesh Patel, in this connection. Taking advantage of the chaos triggered during the police raid, the potential investors fled from the spot.
Senior police officials said both the detained persons could not produce any documents suggesting that they possessed any certificate or licence to hold such a meeting for collecting money from people.
Earlier on March 23, the Commissionerate police had also arrested two youths for duping some people of more than Rs 15 lakh from people by luring them to invest in Bitcoins. It was said to be the first Bitcoin fraud in the State.
The accused identified as Siba Prasad and Rakesh Acharya taking advantage of the hype surrounding massive returns from crypto digital currency, had struck a deal with several persons to provide Bitcoins in lieu of certain payment as deposits.
Though the clients had deposited lakhs of rupees, the key accused went into hiding and did not respond to their calls. Though not banned in India, the Union Government does not recognise the virtual currency Bitcoin as legal tender.
Notably, regarding Bitcoin, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said, “There is a real and heightened risk of investment bubble of the type seen in Ponzi schemes which can result in sudden and prolonged crash exposing investors, especially retail consumers losing their hard-earned money. Consumers need to be alert and extremely cautious to avoid getting trapped in such Ponzi schemes.”