Eleven former police officers have received life sentences for their roles in a BitConnect extortion case.

The police officers are joined by Superintendent of Police Jagdish Patel, Police Inspector Anant Patel and former politician Nalin Kotadiya – all of which also received life sentences.

Criminals sentenced to life in India must serve at least 14 years before being eligible for early release.

As reported by The Times of India on August 29th;

The convictions were made under relevant sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Indian BitConnect extortion case dates back to 2018. BitConnect victim Shailesh Bhatt (right) lost $293,000 in the multi-billion dollar Ponzi.

After BitConnect collapsed in January 2018, Bhatt hatched a plan to get his money back.

Bhatt’s first order of business was teaming up with accomplices and kidnapping BitConnect employee Piyush Savalia.

Bhatt’s men posed as Income Tax Officials and held Savalia at gunpoint in a farm-house for three days.

Savalia led Bhatt’s men to BitConnect developer Dhaval Mavani, who Bhatt then also had kidnapped at gunpoint. Bhatt would later pay Savalia $50,000 for his silence.

While held at gunpoint, Bhatt’s men convinced Mavani to transfer 2,256 bitcoin to a wallet under their control. That wasn’t enough though, with Mavani held hostage until he parted with an additional $2.1 million USD.

Bhatt paid his accomplices ~$34.4 million and spent the rest on real-estate, gold and other assets.

Sometime after Bhatt filed a complaint with the Gujarat Criminal Investigation Department, alleging Amreli police were extorting him.

In addition to confirming the Amreli extortion, which led to the aforementioned life sentences, the Gujarat investigation uncovered Bhatt’s own crimes.

Bhatt was subsequently arrested in August 2024 on Prevention of Money Laundering Act charges. No further updates are available.

BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani (right), who personally recruited Bhatt into BitConnect, remains at large.

Kumbhani has been arrested twice by Indian authorities but both times was released on bail.

After being released, Kumbhani promptly fled the country. Following his second 2019 arrest, Kumbhani is believed to have again fled to Dubai.

Kumbhani remains wanted by Indian authorities. He has also been indicted in the US and has an open arrest warrant issued against him.