ED raids premises of audit company employee amid charges of Bitcoin use in Maharashtra polls
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted searches at the Chhattisgarh premises of an auditing company employee, allegedly linked to a political Bitcoin transactions case in Maharashtra, as part of a money laundering investigation, official sources said.
The house of Gaurav Mehta in Chhattisgarh's capital city Raipur is being covered under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.
The ED action comes when polling for the Maharashtra Assembly elections is underway. The BJP on Tuesday played purported voice notes of NCP (SP) leader and Baramati MP Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole alleging attempts were being made to encash Bitcoins to influence the elections.
ED sources said the agency has widened its ongoing money laundering probe into a crypto (Bitcoin) assets ponzi scam and is investigating the "links" of Mehta and some others with politicians, politically exposed persons and bureaucrats.
The agency attached assets worth Rs 98 crore of actor Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra in April as part of this crypto-ponzi probe. The couple challenged the ED action and got relief from the Bombay High Court. Sharing some audio clips, in which voices and signal chats purportedly of Sule and Patole allegedly indicate that Bitcoins were used for funding the poll campaign, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said it is clear that the MVA has seen the writing on the wall that it will be defeated in the polls.
Sule has denied the charges and said she has filed a complaint with the Election Commission and the cybercrime department of the state against the false allegations. She told reporters on Wednesday that she "did not know Gaurav Mehta".
Patole also dismissed the BJP's allegations and said, "The voice in the clip being circulated is not mine. Even (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi recognises my voice."
The house of Gaurav Mehta in Chhattisgarh's capital city Raipur is being covered under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.
The ED action comes when polling for the Maharashtra Assembly elections is underway. The BJP on Tuesday played purported voice notes of NCP (SP) leader and Baramati MP Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole alleging attempts were being made to encash Bitcoins to influence the elections.
ED sources said the agency has widened its ongoing money laundering probe into a crypto (Bitcoin) assets ponzi scam and is investigating the "links" of Mehta and some others with politicians, politically exposed persons and bureaucrats.
The agency attached assets worth Rs 98 crore of actor Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra in April as part of this crypto-ponzi probe. The couple challenged the ED action and got relief from the Bombay High Court. Sharing some audio clips, in which voices and signal chats purportedly of Sule and Patole allegedly indicate that Bitcoins were used for funding the poll campaign, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said it is clear that the MVA has seen the writing on the wall that it will be defeated in the polls.
Sule has denied the charges and said she has filed a complaint with the Election Commission and the cybercrime department of the state against the false allegations. She told reporters on Wednesday that she "did not know Gaurav Mehta".
Patole also dismissed the BJP's allegations and said, "The voice in the clip being circulated is not mine. Even (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi recognises my voice."