Four arrested for Bathinda bitcoin trader’s suicide

BATHINDA : Four persons, including the Youth Congress’ Jaito block president, were arrested on Friday for allegedly driving a 41-year-old Bathindabased cryptocurrency trader to end his life.

The trader allegedly shot his 38-year-old wife and two children aged 14 and 10 dead with his licensed weapon before taking his life on Thursday. The names and contact numbers of nine persons, including that of Youth Congress leader Manjinder Singh Dhaliwal, were mentioned in a suicide note left by him, the police said.

“Dhaliwal, Parveen Bansal and Ashok Kumar of Bathinda city and Mani Bansal of Raman Mandi town in the district were rounded up yesterday for questioning and were arrested today,” said deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Aaswant Dhaliwal.

Aman Kohinoor and her husband Raju Kohinoor, Babbu Kalra, Sanjay Jindal and Abhishek Johri, a Delhi resident, are other accused who are yet to be arrested.

In the suicide note, the trader alleged that most of the accused were threatening and humiliating him for his failed business. In their initial investigation, the police claim to have found that the deceased, who belonged to an affluent business family, owed nearly Rs 1 crore to various people.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (murder) and 306 ( abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

“As a part of investment deals in bitcoin and real estate, the victim had issued post- dated cheques to the investors. As he failed to keep his commitments, the investors started asking for their money back. We have found that he had committed to clear the debts by October 20 but he failed to raise the funds,” said a police official.

The deceased had to sell a large house in Panchvati Nagar, an upscale residential locality, three years ago at a throwaway price to clear his debts, it is learnt. He then moved his family to a rented accommodation two-and-a-half-years ago.

He switched over to chit funds or unregulated saving schemes around five years ago and made several people invest in shady companies, said an official. Then he gradually he moved to investment in ‘virtual money’ and allegedly lured his previous clients to invest in bitcoins.