A former IPS officer and a cyber-expert have been arrested by the cyber cell of Pune city police on Saturday for allegedly cheating the investigating officer by fraudulently transferring crypto worth crores from crypto wallets to their personal accounts.

The accused have been identified as former IPS officer Ravindra Patil and cyber expert Pankaj Ghode. Both the accused were earlier assisting the Pune Police in cracking a case of cryptocurrency fraud in 2018.

Assistant Commissioner of Police in Cyber and Economic Offences Wing, Vijay Palsule said, “Ravindra Patil started working as a cyber-expert specialised in crypto after taking voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) from Indian Police Services (IPS). In 2018 several complaints were received at Pune for various crypto cases and based on those complaints two separate cases related to cryptocurrency fraud were registered with Dattawadi and Nigadi police station.”

“During the investigation of these cases police had arrested 17 accused and both Ravindra Patil and Pankaj Ghode were assisting the police as cyber crypto experts,” said Palsule.

He further said that Patil allegedly transferred some of the cryptocurrencies in his account and Ghode provided screenshots of the accounts to police by manipulating the figures, both have allegedly misused the data given by the then investigation officer (IO) for technical analysis.

“The involvement of the duo was revealed after the investigation was ordered when their activity was found suspicious. Police officials after the KYC check confirmed their role and a case was registered at a cyber-police station in Pune city,” Palsule added.

Both the accused were arrested from their house by the cyber police and charged under Section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property),409 (Criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 465 (Punishment for forgery) of the Indian Penal Code along with 66 (c) (Punishment for identity theft) of Information Technology (IT) act and under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) act.

Both accused were produced before the court which has sent them to police custody for 7 days. Further investigation is underway to find out the exact amount of fraud.55