PANews reported on January 25th that, according to India Today, Indian law enforcement authorities have arrested two individuals in connection with the BitConnect cryptocurrency scam, a case involving global fraud, kidnapping, and extortion, with the amount involved reaching thousands of bitcoins and tens of millions of rupees in cash. The arrested individuals, Nikunj Pravinbhai Bhatt and Sanjay Kotadia, are suspected of involvement in a kidnapping and extortion case where the victim was forced to hand over 2,254 bitcoins, 11,000 Litecoins, and approximately 1.45 billion rupees in cash. Some of the extorted bitcoins were converted into ETH and USDT and transferred through multiple layers of wallets. Indian law enforcement authorities have frozen and seized approximately 1.9 billion rupees in assets, including crypto assets, stocks, and cash; to date, the total value of assets seized or frozen in this case is approximately 217 billion rupees. The investigation is ongoing.

Indian law enforcement agencies say BitConnect positions itself as a high-return investment platform, claiming its self-developed volatility trading robot can generate returns of up to 40% per month. The agency states these claims are fabricated to create a false impression of growth, including posting a false daily return of approximately 1% on its website.