Gandhinagar:

It seems that the noose in Bitcoin case is tightening harder on former Dhari MLA Nalin Kotadiya.

Kotadiya, who is underground fearing his arrest, has in his defense claimed that complainant of the case and Surat builder Shailesh Bhatt had in fact snatched 2300 bitcoins worth Rs 240 crore from Piyush Savaliya and Dhawal Mawani after kidnapping them.

But Savaliya has in a statement on affidavit sent to CID-crime, copy of which has also been sent to CM Vijay Rupani and MoS Home Pradipsinh Jadeja, has clarified that he was never kidnapped by Bhatt and he has not taken any bitcoin from him. The affidavit dated May 5 with photograph and signature of Savaliya claims that he or Dhawal were never kidnapped or no bitcoin was snatched by Bhatt from them. The affidavit prepared in Surat was received by speed-post today.

In a reference to Kotadiya’s claim Savaliya has in the statement said that he had come to know about the allegations through media and deemed it fit to clarify his side.

Notably, the role of Kotadiya in the bitcoin case became clear yesterday with revelation that he was supposed to get a share of Rs 66 lakh from Paladiya who had fraudulently kept 176 bitcoins of Surat based builder and complainant Bhatt. He had already dispatched Rs 35 lakhs to him through Angadiya pedhi (Rs 25 lakhs in Ahmedabad and Rs 10 in Dhari). The CID-crime has also recovered Rs 25 lakh from Rajkot builder and close aide of Kotadiya, Nanku Ahir.

Nalin Kotadiya has not yet turned up before CID-crime for interrogation. He is still incommunicado officially. He had however yesterday in a statement alleged that he was being implicated in the case by big-wigs. He had alleged that CID-crime was not looking up in the 2300 bitcoin snatching matter and was only expediting the investigation in Bhatt’s allegations. He had also said that

Notably the bitcoin case was filed by Bhatt who had alleged that he was kidnapped by policemen in February this year for extortion of bitcoin worth Rs 12 crore. The then Amreli SP Jagdish Patel, LCB PI Anant Patel, said-mastermind Kirit Paladiya and co-conspirator Ketan patel are all behind bars in this case.

DeshGujarat