The ‘Bitcoin Legal Defense’ group includes over 200 victims of the GainBitcoin Scam who are all set to move Supreme court seeking cancellation of the interim bail granted to Ajay Bharadwaj, the main accused. However, hearing the case on 12 October 2022, the two-judge bench that included Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Surya Kant did not call for the cancellation of the bail. The case will now come for hearing on 12 December, 2022.

GainBitcoin’s investors soon began to lose money, just like other Ponzi schemes, and the operators were no longer reachable.

In the meantime, it’s been reported that the Pune Police has also hired a lawyer to defend the Maharashtra Police in front of the Court.

The fraud victims claim that their former attorneys failed to adequately represent them and accepted bribes to undermine the case.

Additionally, Bitcoin Legal Defense will ask the Pune Session Court to revoke the bail that was granted to Pankaj Ghode and other defendants in the case.

On March 12, 2022, the Pune Police detained IPS Ravindra Patil and cybercrime experts Pankaj Ghode for obstructing justice and squandering the recovered Bitcoins. Both consultants were previously employed by the Pune Police to assist in the investigation of the GainBitcoin scam’s Bitcoin transactions.

The police issued a 4,500-page charge – sheet against the two in June 2022.

Patil is still imprisoned, but Ghode just received bail after being denied several times.

Depending on FIRs registered on Amit Bhardwaj & his friends, police agencies from around 12 states, namely Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Delhi, are looking into the issue.

Meanwhile, the ED has already been looking into the matter for potential PMLA and FEMA violations.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) as well as the Center are being represented by Aishwarya Bhati, additional solicitor general (ASG), who recently proposed to the Supreme Court that the matter be transferred to the CBI.

The hearing was postponed on October 12 because the ASG was unable to present in court due to a death in her family.

Since then, the victims have been requesting that an ED inquiry into the case be overseen by the SC. They have also demanded that the SIT of the Maharashtra government continue its investigation.

According to a report, there were over 1 lakh victims of the GainBitcoin fraud, and Amit Bhardwaj was responsible for the collection of 3,85,000 Bitcoins as part of the different schemes. The magnitude of the fraud now exceeds INR 90,000 Cr.

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