New Delhi:
Hours before the Maharashtra Assembly elections, former IPS officer Ravindra Nath Patil has accused Congress state president Nana Patole and senior NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule of using Bitcoin for their campaign during the Maharashtra elections. After this, BJP has accused Congress and NCP of Bitcoin scam. However, Supriya Sule has responded to this.
Supriya Sule wrote on social media platform A criminal complaint has been filed in India. The intentions and malice behind this are completely saddening that such practices have started in a healthy democracy of India.
Familiar tactics of spreading false information to manipulate the righteous voters are being resorted to, a night before the polling day. We have filed a criminal complaint to the Hon’ble ECI & the Cyber crime department against the fake allegations made of bitcoin… pic.twitter.com/g8Selv1DFk
— Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) November 19, 2024
Here BJP has made serious allegations against Supriya Sule and Nana Patole regarding this. BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi held a press conference and demanded investigation into attempts to influence elections through foreign money.
Former IPS Ravindra Nath Patil alleged that Supriya Sule and Nana Patole are involved in the cryptocurrency scam. He accused both the leaders of using Bitcoin manipulation for election campaign.
Ravindra Nath Patil accused former Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta and cyber crime investigator Bhagyashree Navatke, claiming that they were involved in the Bitcoin scam. He had protection from Supriya Sule and Nana Patole.
IPS Ravindra Nath Patil was arrested in 2022
While sharing the details of the entire scam, he said that his company KPMG was appointed for forensic audit in the Bitcoin crypto currency scam of 2018. I led him. In the year 2022, I was arrested on the charges of the same case. I spent 14 months in jail. During this time he was trying to find out why he was implicated. He and his colleagues continued to work to get to the facts. Eventually, they discovered shocking facts.
Patil revealed that a key witness in the case, Gaurav Mehta, an employee of an audit firm, had contacted him several times in the last few days. When Patil responded, Mehta shared information about the 2018 cryptocurrency fraud investigation. Mehta alleged that during the arrest of cryptocurrency trader Amit Bhardwaj, a hardware wallet containing Bitcoin was seized.
Supriya Sule and Nana Patole involved in crypto currency scam – Ravindra Nath Patil
However, according to Mehta, that wallet was replaced with another wallet. This was allegedly done on the instructions of the then Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta. Mehta claimed that Patil and his associates were wrongly arrested, while the real culprit was Gupta and his team. Patil also accused Mehta of taking the names of Supriya Sule and Nana Patole in the scam.
Mehta alleged that they were using the cash obtained through Bitcoin manipulation to finance other election campaigns, including the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the current Maharashtra Assembly elections.
In the audio recording, Sule reportedly assured Mehta that there was no need to worry about the investigation as he would handle it once he came to power. In another recording, Nana Patole was purportedly heard inquiring about the delay in cash transactions. Its audio message is available with IANS, but the agency does not guarantee the authenticity of the clip.
Patil’s claim- Amitabh Gupta demanded Rs 50 crore
Patil further claimed that in another audio recording, Amitabh Gupta was seen demanding Rs 50 crore. In another conversation, Gupta reportedly said that he had created four cryptocurrency wallets in the name of Patil and his associate Pankaj Ghode and transactions were conducted from these wallets.
Citing the conversation he had with Gaurav Mehta, Patil said that Gupta had allegedly suggested that if there was an investigation, both Patil and Pankaj Ghode would be implicated, we would be safe.
According to media reports, former IPS officer Ravindra Nath Patil was arrested by Pune Police in 2022 in a cryptocurrency fraud case worth crores of rupees. Patil, a 2004 batch IPS officer, was working as a cyber security expert in the corporate sector since 2010. In 2018, he was appointed as a forensic auditor in the Bitcoin fraud case.
