Amit Bhardwaj, who is known for his role in the scandal surrounding the GainBitcoin scam, was granted bail on medical grounds by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Along with Amit, his brother Vivek Bhardwaj, who is also an accused in the scandal, has also been granted bail. However, the apex court directed Amit to pay Rs 10 crore and his brother to pay Rs 1 crore.
Speaking to Inc42, Bhardwaj's lawyer Deepak Parekh said, "While Amit Bhardwaj has been granted interim bail based on his health ground, the Supreme Court granted bail to his brother, purely based on the merits of the case."
"Amit Bhardwaj has gotten bail on medical grounds. However, he has been ordered to pay, Rs 10 crore as a penalty in the next six months and his brother Vivek Bhardwaj has also been directed to pay Rs 1 crore. Every Monday he has to go to Shalimar Baug police station in New Delhi and sign his presence. He has to remain in Delhi for the time being. This fight will go on for a long time now," a source told Crypto-News.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate had attached properties worth Rs 42.88 crore to Amit. The properties include six offices of Amit Bhardwaj in Dubai and flats and bank balances in India of two of his marketing agents.
The ED had filed a criminal case under the PMLA against Amit's company GainBitcoin in 2018. He had investments worth 80,000 bitcoins and promised investors of returns in his newly launched cryptocurrency. However, he lost more than Rs 2,000 crore from 8,000 investors.
GainBitcoin was not the only venture by Amit which failed. He had also started GBMiners, MCAP and GB21, and the investors in these ventures too lost a lot fo their money.
