Popular Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband and businessman Raj Kundra was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for eight hours Tuesday against being a witness in the act of concealing the origin of illegally obtained money related to the Rs 2,000 crore bitcoin scam in Maharashtra.
Kundra was cited at the ED office in Mumbai in the morning and asked questions in this regard. The founder of GainBitcon, Amit Bhardwaj, who was the mastermind behind this fraud had earlier been arrested along with his brother Vivek in April for a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against cheating more than 8,000 people for Rs 2,000 crore. Kundra’s name turned up in the report following alleged links with Bhardwaj. This isn’t the first time that Kundra has faced such difficulty. He had earlier been accused of placing bets in the Indian Premier League.
While leaving the ED office, Raj Kundra said, “The ED called me as a witness. There is an Amit Bhardwaj, who’s involved in some scam. He had purchased a poker team from our poker league but didn’t make payment, so we expelled his team. I’ve given my statement.”
According to the reports, the questioning by ED may have thrown up many other high-profile celebrity names including Sunny Leone, Prachi Desai, Aarti Chhabria, Sonal Chauhan, Karishma Tanna, Zareen Khan, Neha Dhupia, Huma Qureshi, and Nargis Fakhri. The businessman’s wife, Shilpa Shetty may also be questioned by the law enforcement agency.
The police had also arrested seven people, including Hemant Vishwas, Hemant Babasaheb Chavan, Ajay Tanaji Saheb, Pankaj Srinandkishore, and Chandrakant Bhope for being connected to the fraud.
Followed by the Bitcoin scam earlier, Arun Jaitley had earlier announced that the government does not consider cryptocurrencies as legal tender and would take all measures to terminate payments using them.
In last few months, multiple cases of cryptocurrency fraud have been reported. Many people now will be introduced to the world of fraud through cryptocurrency due to the involvement of their favorite celebrities in the Bitcoin scam. It can clearly be judged how much in danger is the future of the population of India.