New Delhi, June 6:  The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday questioned Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty for over ten hours in connection with Bitcoin scam case. Kundra was summoned by ED for his alleged links with Pune-based businessman Amit Bhardwaj, who had duped 8,000 people to invest in bitcoins for eighteen months.

Bhardwaj, the fraudster who also promised people a benefit return of 10 per cent was arrested two months ago in Delhi. It must be noted that it is alleged that about 8,000 investors lost about Rs 2,000 crore funds by transacting in this scheme.

Earlier, the ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against bitcoin-based investment website GainBitcoin, its founder Amit Bhardwaj and eight others. Reports inform that the victims of Bharadwaj’s con hailed primarily from Mumbai, Pune, Nanded and Kolhapur.

Reports by PTI inform that the central agency has expanded its probe into this case and is also investigating related bitcoin or cryptocurrency transactions that are under the scanner of other departments.

Earlier this year, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had stated that bitcoin is not a legal tender in India and said that the government is waiting for a report of an expert on cryptocurrencies before taking any decision. The Union finance ministry constituted an Inter-Disciplinary Committee to take stock of the present status of virtual currencies both in India and globally and suggest measures for dealing with such currencies.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 06, 2018 04:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).