Reports out of India are suggesting that five men have been arrested for allegedly torturing the a a Kerala businessman, the head of a failed $62.5 million Bitcoin investment scheme, to death. After the body was discovered in a parking lot, and the man identified as the head of the scheme, pieces were put together that perhaps the murderers were disgruntled clients.

The police were notified when an abandoned car in a hospital parking lot was found to have the body of the victim, Abdul Shakoo. The hospital called the police to examine the crime scene. On combing through the car, the police found a hospital admission card, a diary and some documents.

Police also found several injury marks on Shakoor’s body, which indicated that he was tortured to death. On further investigation, the police learned that Shakur was tortured by his co-workers over a Rs 450 crore ($62 million).  Bitcoin scam.

A smash and grab effort

Now, five men, from Malappuram, have been arrested in connection with this alleged murder; Faris Mamnoon, Arvind C, Asif Ali, Sufail Mukhtar and Aftab Mohammad. The Dehradun police are searching for five more men who were part of Shakoor’s core team: Aashiq, Arshad, Yasin, Rehaab and Muneef.

The story goes that Shakoo was running a business involved in Bitcoin investment that hauled in an impressive figure of  Rs 450 crore ($62 million) for investing in the cryptocurrency from people in various places. Art of the business included setting up a network of people who collected funds, but ultimately the business failed. 

Because of this failed business, the victim was clearly in financial strife, and had a lot of disgruntled investors who utilized his services; and those people came looking for him, it is believed and alleged. 

A new offering?

It has since been discovered by police that, after interrogated those men who were arrested, that Shakoor told his business partner that his Bitcoin account was hacked and that he was planning to start his own cryptocurrency to pay back the investors. 

However, the partner was convinced that Shakoor might have cryptocurrency worth crores of rupees and that if he could get the password to his account, the team could retrieve the amount. This led to the business partern and th other co-accussed attempting to torture the apsswrod out of him.

“The accused tortured him so much to retrieve the password that Shakoor died. Because crores of money would be lost with his death, the men took him to a hospital, hoping for a miracle. However, since that hospital declared him dead, they took him to another hospital, where they received the same response. So, they abandoned the body in the car and fled the hospital,” Dehradun SSP Arun told the media.

Another bitcoin business gone bad

It is unfortunate to yet again see another Bitcoin business go bad and thus cause those who had trusted the head of the company to turn to desperate measures to try and recoup their investments. The accussed are now faced with a murder charge after they attemped to get back what was rightfully theirs. 

This is also a damaging blow to Bitcoin in India as the country is already heavily anti-cryptocurrencies and their unregulated nature.