Ahmedabad, July 5: The Congress on Thursday accused the BJP-led governments in Gujarat, as well as the Centre, of attempting to cover the 'mega bitcoin scam' unearthed by the state police's crime investigation department.

Former state minister and Congress veteran Shaktisinh Gohil claimed the scam, of the tune of nearly Rs 5,000 crores, involves the top brass of BJP in Gujarat.

Without naming a BJP leader, who has served as a legislator in the state, Gohil said he is the "kingpin" behind the scam. He was referring to Nalin Kotadiya, whom the CID claim is "untraceable".

Gohil claims the former BJP MLA has threatened to expose other party leaders if he gets arrested. "This is the reason why he (Kotadiya) is being given a free-run," the Congress leader alleged.

Though the magnitude of the bitcoin scam is reported to be nearly Rs 5,000 crore, its actual scale could stretch upto Rs 88,000 crore, Gohil claimed.

"First they converted black money into white through demonetisation. Now they are using the bitcoin scam to convert more black money into white," he added.

“We demand an impartial Supreme Court-monitored judicial investigation in this maze of ‘Mega Bitcoin Scam’ so that the truth comes out,” he told reporters.

Attacking the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, Gohil said the Centre has adopted a muted response despite being aware of the "attempts by the state government to suppress the scandal".

It is intriguing that the Modi government sends in CBI/ED/Govt authorities to hound Gujarat Congress MLAs as well as Karnataka Congress candidates during elections, when the code of conduct is on. But it does not bother to investigate this ‘Mega Bitcoin Scam’,” he said.

Gohil also questioned why the BJP has failed to "offer an explanation" to the RTI reply which revealed that Rs 745.58 crore were deposited in the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB) within five days of the November 8, 2016 demonetisation drive. Notably, the bank's director is BJP president Amit Shah.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 05, 2018 09:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).