Nalin Kotadiya, ex-Member of the Legislative Assembly is proclaimed criminal in connection with a BTC extortion case with a value of USD1.3 million, reported by Business Standard yesterday.

PG Tamakwala presiding judge, confirmed Kotadiya an announced criminal or offender under Section 82 of the Code of Criminal Procedure with reference to a request filed by the CID or Crime Investigation Department. Nalin Kotadiya remained at large, even after a warrant was released for his capture. The Crime Investigation Department started proceeding again, seeking that the court must declare him a criminal.

In India, an announced criminal proceeding is a process of the law of the court, by which the court proclaims the individual as a criminal and requires law enforcer to arrest the individual named in the procedure. The passport of the criminal is also confiscated or impounded so that he or she may not able to go to other countries. The ruling ordered the offender Kotadiya to show before the court within thirty days.

Earlier, the petitioner in the case, Sailes Bhatt, an Indian businessman, claimed that in February law enforcer kidnapped him and his business partner. They kept them confined at a farmhouse and extorted Bitcoin worth more or less USD1.3 million owned by his business partner Kirit Paladia. According to Bhatt, Nalin was involved in that activity. As a matter of fact, he was the one who pressured him to pay the ransom. The law enforcers were arrested in connection with the case.

Nalin Kotadia is a former Member of the Legislative Assembly of the ruling Bureau of Jail and Prison from Dhari in the district of Amreli. Nalin is also a leader of the Patidar caste.

Prior to this, Carbon Black, a renowned cybersecurity company published a report telling that about USD1.1 billion worth of digital currency has been robbed in the first half of the year 2018. Estimates show that there are more than 12,000 marketplaces and 34,000 offerings related to a crypto robbery that hackers and scammers can take benefit of.

Talking at the Money 20/20 Europe conference held last June 4, 2018, Mary Beth Buchanan, former United States Federal Prosecutor said that many crimes and wrongdoings have been done with fiat currencies than digital currency. He also stressed that at this point in time, there are lots of commercially available tools that police can leverage to know how digital assets has moved on a blockchain technology.