A lower court in Gujarat issued non-bailable warrant on Thursday against former legislator Nalin Kotadia in the multi-crore Bitcoin extortion and kidnapping case.
Kotadia’s involvement in the case came to the fore after the arrest of main accused Kirit Paladiya arrest. Paladiya who kidnapped one Shailesh Bhatt for extortion of 176 Bitcoin worth crores of rupees revealed Kotadia’s involvement in the case during police interrogation.
First summons was issued to Kotadia on May 4. After he skipped the first summons, another summons issued to him on May 5. later on he released a press note on May 7 claiming that the allegations against him were false and some conspiracy was done to frame him in the case. Couple of days later Kotadia sent a letter to CID officials requesting them not to issue third summons as he would present before them by May 12. However he didn’t appear before the investigation officers. During this period investigation officers carried out a search operation at 25 locations in Ahmedabad, Surat and Amreli, in search for the former MlA. The CID had also sent a team to Chandigarh after they got a tip-off that Kotadia was hiding there but the information was not correct. Finally CID decided to submit a report on the arrest warrant of Kotadia in a lower court on Monday and on Thursday the court issued non-bailable warrant against him.