Raj Kundra appears before court, gets bail in 2018 Bitcoin money laundering case

Mumbai: Following a summons, Raj Kundra, husband of actor Shilpa Shetty, appeared before a special court handling money laundering cases and was granted bail in a 2018 crime concerning Bitcoins worth over Rs 150 crore.The special trial court judge R B Rote on Jan 5, after hearing special public prosecutor Kavita Patil, took cognisance of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) chargesheet in the case and summoned Kundra to court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He appeared in court and, through his advocate Prashant Patil, sought bail under the provisions of the new criminal procedural law, BNSS. The provision invoked enables an accused, previously not arrested in the case, to be released on a bail bond after the court summons him on a chargesheet being filed.
The ED case is that Kundra allegedly received 285 Bitcoins in July 2017. The ED valued them at $1 million, or Rs 6.6 crore, at the time, Patil said, adding the agency, though, adopted "arbitrarily" the value of bitcoin as on April 16, 2024, or approximately Rs 52 lakh per Bitcoin, and on that basis arrived at a figure of around Rs 150 crore.The prosecution case was that a co-accused had created an online platform and conspired with others to dupe "a number of gullible investors with a promise of a very high return in terms of earning in Bitcoin.Kundra, whose bail plea denied any role in the alleged fraud, also argued the ED's approach was "untenable and legally impermissible, as it amounts to pick-and-choose valuation without any statutory backing". He said a question that arose was: if the value in 2024 dropped to Re 1, would the ED attach only Rs 285?It was argued that the relevant date for valuation could only be the date on which the alleged proceeds were generated, ie July 2017, and not an arbitrary future date chosen to suit the prosecution. Kundra questioned the attachment of properties worth ₹150 crores as "grossly disproportionate, ex facie arbitrary, and liable to be set aside".Claiming he was regular in his appearance before the ED since 2018, Kundra's lawyer also said he was contemplating approaching the Bombay high court for quashing of the summons issued in the ED matter.