Supreme Court Transfers Over 40 FIRs Linked To Bitcoin Scam To CBI

In a significant development, the Supreme Court Wednesday ordered transfer of over 40 FIRs related to the Bitcoin cryptocurrency scam to the CBI for further investigation and shifted the trial to a Delhi court.

Observing that the accused, who are on anticipatory bail, cannot be allowed to "stultify" the ongoing probe, the top court vacated its August 30, 2019 order granting them the relief of pre-arrest bail.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said now the accused, if not granted regular bail by other courts, will have to seek the relief from the Delhi High Court.

It said the trial of cases wherein the FIRs have been registered will now be conducted at a special CBI court at Rouse Avenue in New Delhi.

The FIRs were lodged by several agencies, including the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, besides the local police of Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Chandigarh, Punjab, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir.

Dismissing as many as 32 petitions filed by the accused, the bench said, "We are of the view that allegations levelled in the FIRs merit investigation. The exercise of jurisdiction under Art 32 is not warranted." "We are of the view that all the FIRs in question be transferred for further investigation to the CBI. The amount (of Rs 1 crore) deposited before this court pursuant to the interim order shall stand transferred to the special CBI Court at Rouse Avenue, New Delhi," the bench said.

Article 32 of the Constitution allows Indian citizens to seek constitutional remedy directly from the Supreme Court if they are deprived of their fundamental rights.

While taking back the relief of anticipatory bail granted earlier, the bench said, " We cannot allow you to stultify the investigation by not cooperating with the probe agency".

Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for the accused, said the legal status of Bitcoin is completely a "grey area" and the accused are made to run from one part of the country to another to face the probe agencies and courts.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the ED, said she was not opposed to the transfer of the probe to the CBI and the trial to a single court in Delhi. "But the interim protection of anticipatory bail must go," the law officer said.

"We are not entertaining the petition under Article 32...We will permit the petitioners to surrender and apply for regular bail before an appropriate court," the CJI observed orally.

The court said the amount of Rs 1 crore deposited with the apex court registry by the accused as a precondition for grant of anticipatory bail will have to be transferred to the trial court in Delhi.

Earlier, the top court was irked over non-compliance of its prior order by Amit Bhardwaj, the key accused who later died. He had allegedly not shared his username/passwords with the Enforcement Directorate.

"Why have you not shared your username and password when it was recorded in our earlier order? We will dismiss your writ petition if there is non-compliance. The Supreme Court is not some district court, where you can play with the orders. You yourself had made the statement that you will share the username and passwords and now there is non-compliance. This is not a Tis Hazari Court," the bench had said.

On March 28 last year, the top court had asked Bharadwaj to disclose the username and password of his Bitcoin wallet to the ED and cooperate with the investigation in the money laundering case against him.

The top court was dealing with cases related to the quashing of multiple FIRs registered against Amit Bhardwaj and others for allegedly cheating investors across India by inducing them to trade in Bitcoin after promising them high returns.

The Enforcement Directorate had said around 47 FIRs were registered against the accused for allegedly duping people across the country. The cases involved trading of 87,000 Bitcoins worth Rs 20,000 crore.

Amit Bhardwaj, his two brothers and their father are accused in the case.

The allegation against Bhardwaj was that he along with other co-accused, who are mostly his family members, had induced unsuspecting people to invest in Bitcoin through a "multi-level marketing scheme" on the false promise of securing for them 10 per cent assured monthly returns for 18 months, a cumulative profit of 180 per cent.

It was alleged that due to the inducement, customers invested their Bitcoins in the scheme but did not get the assured returns.

The FIRs also said in order to escape inevitable punishment under the law, Bhardwaj and other accused collectively, in a dishonest manner, and with the deliberate intention of destroying the evidence, shut down the fake 'gainbitcoin' website through which investments were made.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)