Crypto extortion case: Gujarat HC suspends ex-SP’s life sentence

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court on Monday suspended the life sentence and granted conditional bail to ex-IPS officer Jagdish Patel in connection with the kidnapping of Surat businessman Shailesh Bhatt to extort cryptocurrency from Bhatt in 2018.Fifteen people were sentenced to life imprisonment in the case by a special ACB court last year, and they included Patel and former BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya.Patel was a former SP of Amreli district.During the pendency of Patel's appeal in the HC against his conviction, a bench of Justice Ilesh Vora and Justice R T Vachhani granted him regular bail and said that Patel was arraigned on the charges of criminal conspiracy.The bench said, "The entire case against the applicant herein rests on circumstantial evidence and, admittedly, he was not present either at the place of the circuit house or at the place where the victim was kidnapped."Moreover, the bench said, "We do not find any incriminating material that during the offence period, the applicant was in contact with the co-accused directly or indirectly."On the allegations of ransom demand, the HC said, "There is nothing on record to prove that the applicant derived any financial benefit from the alleged act of ransom etc."The HC also considered the possibility of a delay in hearing the appeal while granting bail to the former SP.In this case, Bhatt was abducted by some cops after he extracted Bitcoins from another Surat businessman, Dhaval Mavani.Kotadiya and the Amreli SP came to know about this, and they allegedly hatched a conspiracy to extort cryptocurrency from Bhatt.