New Delhi, April 5: Amit Bhardwaj, the mastermind of $300 mn (about Rs 2,000 crore) worth Bitcoin scam has been arrested at the Delhi Airport by the Pune Police. Bhardwaj, a former Infosys employee, allegedly duped thousands of Indian investors by hatching Bitcoin-based Ponzi schemes. The arrest comes after Pune police had arrested seven persons associated with Bhardwaj and located him at Bangkok.

Pune Police Commissioner, Rashmi Shukla confirmed the arrest and said, “Amit Bhardwaj was arrested from the Delhi Airport today”. The Delhi Police say that Bhardwaj introduced the first online retail marketplace accepting bitcoin in the country in 2014 and owns a chain of bitcoin mining operations notable among them are Gain bitcoin. It must be noted that Bhardwaj is facing scam charges worth Rs 2,000 crore) attached to his company GainBitcoin.

GainBitcoin was involved in multi-level marketing cryptocurrency schemes. As per reports, the accused has been on the run for the past few months. Bhardwaj had faked a heart attack in the Dubai airport last week where managed to give the security agencies a slip and escaped to Bangkok, Thailand. As per reports, Bhardwaj is also said to have links with Pakistan intelligence agency ISI.

According to details by CryptoNews, the Indian government had to collaborate with the government of Thailand to bring him back into the country. Bhardwaj has authored several books on blockchain and cryptocurrency, that includes 'Cryptocurrency For Beginners', 'Cryptocurrency Trading' and 'Cryptocurrency Mining.'

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 05, 2018 02:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).