The Indian Police in Pune, Maharashtra, had a huge problem as they seized $1.2 million worth of Bitcoin from a Ponzi scheme and cannot transfer it because of the country’s anti-crypto laws. As a result, a court order was requested.
In an article published by Times of India, it was mentioned that the cyber police of Pune confiscated 244 cryptocurrency units. However, the money is blocked in the account of the Discidium Internet company, which was actually hired by the police department to convert the crypto amount into rupees.
Jairam Paygude, Pune cyber police senior inspector, declared that the Central Bank of India cannot transfer the money that was converted to the treasury branch of the State Bank of India. This is because the account was frozen after the intervention of the RBI (Reserve Bank of India).
Discidium Internet now challenged RBI’s order validity, an order that prohibits virtual currency dealings. The company requested that the Reserve Bank of India intervenes so that the Central Bank of India unfreezes the account. According to Ujjwala Pawar, district government pleader, the police request is now pending.
The Indian Bitcoin Ban
Local crypto businesses are right now taking preemptive measures because of the Indian legal draft called “Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2019” since it proposes a sentence of ten years in prison for all people that mine, hold, transfer, sell, generate, issue, deal in or dispose of cryptocurrencies. Rahul Jain declared:
“As a startup from India, we always wanted to serve from India, but this recent complication has made it difficult for domestic crypto exchanges to operate their businesses in India. So, we are now an Estonia-based company, and any Indian law to criminalize crypto will not impact us.”
So in a country that is affected by poverty, the government takes steps to regulate cryptocurrency and effectively stops the police from getting money from operations stopped. This does not seem effective and numerous Indian companies are moving or either moved from the company because of the regulations.
