Illustration for representational purpose

HYDERABAD: The Registrar of Companies (ROC), under the ministry of corporate affairs, has issued a notice to Bitcoin India Software Services Ltd in Andhra Pradesh following large-scale complaints that it had collected over Rs 200 crore from investors and duped them.

The Prakasam-based company had collected money from depositors in AP, Telangana , Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and a few other states. The ROC stepped in after Chittaranjan Shah, a resident of Sanjay Colony, Bhatti Kalan, New Delhi, filed a complaint against Bitcoin India charging it with fraudulently transferring money from his freecharge wallet into its ICICI bank account.

ROC, during its initial investigation, found that the company had not furnished annual reports or balance sheets though it had come into existence in Oct 2014. The company had even failed to reply to an ROC notice, which was served in July last week.

Directors of the company — Sykam Ramakrishna Reddy and Sykam Sreemannarayana Reddy — were also served notices and asked to submit balance sheets and profit and loss accounts along with the auditors’ report. The company’s registered address was located to Ballavaram village in Veligandla mandal, Prakasam .

Sources said the Bitcoin fraud figured during the state-level coordination committee meeting held in Vijayawada on July 24. CID’s economic offences wing, which received a report from the district superintendent of police on the antecedents of the company, said that Bitcoin India had stopped its operations. But investigations by ROC have revealed that Bitcoin is active and operating online using mobile apps and social media.

Ghaziabad resident Anuj Garg first lodged a complaint against Bitcoin India in Jan 2018, alleging that he was cheated of Rs 7 lakh. Garg said he had downloaded the app and carried out transactions in cryptocurrency. Soon, he lost both bitcoin and money in the mobile wallet.

The accused directors, however, denied the allegations of fraud and claimed they went by the rule book. When asked about complaints filed against him, Ramakrishna said his app was a wallet and not a trading platform.

The Reserve Bank of India, in its December 2017 directive, had cautioned people of the risks involved with virtual currencies, including bitcoins.

