India’s national police academy has launched a cryptocurrency
course for high-ranking officers of the Indian Police Service. Among
the objectives of the course are the functioning and legal aspects of
cryptocurrencies, as well as investigations of cases involving digital
coins. The Indian police continue to regularly uncover crypto-related
schemes as the government deliberates on the regulatory framework for
cryptocurrency.
Crypto Course for Indian Police Officers
As the Indian government prepares the regulatory framework for
cryptocurrency, the country’s police force is working on educating law
enforcement officers on cryptocurrency. India’s premier police training
academy, the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVP NPA),
has announced a course on the subject to train officers of the Indian
Police Service (IPS).
The course entitled “Investigation of cases involving
cryptocurrencies” is scheduled to be held on Sept. 5 and 6 at the
institute which is located in Hyderabad. Enrollees will be nominated IPS
officers of the rank of Additional Superintendent of Police to
Inspector General of Police, the institute explained. The academy has
begun accepting nominations for the course; self-nominations are not
accepted.
According to the institute’s announcement, the course has four
objectives. In addition to the “Introduction of [the] functioning of
cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology,” officers will learn the
“legal aspects of cryptocurrencies, crimes committed using
cryptocurrencies, [and] investigation of cases involving
cryptocurrencies.”
The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy trains IPS
officers “who have been selected through an All India based Civil
Services Examination,” the institute’s website describes. The IPS cadre
is controlled by the Home Ministry of the Government of India and
officers of this service can only be appointed and removed by an order
of the President of India, the institute emphasized. “The trained
officers will be posted as Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in
their respective states under whom the other sub-ranks of [the] police
force will be working.”
In February, India’s Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated
a national cyber forensics lab, which included a crypto forensics lab,
and the Delhi Police’s cybercrime unit called the Cyber Protection
Awareness and Detection Center (Cypad). It is “the first cybercrime
awareness and detection center opened in the country,” Delhi Police
Commissioner Amulya Patnaik said. “We are now equipped with technology
to recover data from damaged hard disks, cryptocurrency analysis,
malware forensic and data can be retrieved from 33,000 kinds of mobile
models available in the market.”
Recent Crypto-Related Schemes Busted by Police
The Indian police have regularly uncovered scams involving digital
coins. Over the past two weeks, at least three crypto-related schemes
were busted. The Times of India reported on July 5 that the Criminal
Investigation Department (CID) has registered another crypto scam from
Surat, a large city beside the Tapi River in the west Indian state of
Gujarat.
“The CID officials said that the accused had launched ‘KBC coin’ six
months ago and had lured investors with the promise of converting their
10 paise [~$0.0015] into Rs 10 [~$0.15] in no time,” the publication
detailed. “The value of KBC coins never increased and within six months,
the promoters went underground,” said CID Director General of Police
Ashish Bhatia. This is the sixth crypto-related fraud registered in
Surat in two years, the news outlet noted, adding that the police
arrested four people in this latest case.
Another crypto-related case was reported on July 3. “Delhi Police
arrested a private bank manager in Gurugram for his alleged involvement
in several financial frauds using shell companies and other
cryptocurrency scams,” Mumbai Press wrote. The financial fraud surfaced
when a resident of Delhi’s Ghonda filed a complaint against a gang that
cheated him out of more than Rs 14 lakh (~$20,453) to invest in
“Kashhcoin,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) AK Singla
explained.
The accused Sandeep Singh Dua currently works as a manager at
Standard Chartered Bank in Gurugram, the publication noted. He confessed
to being an active member of the scheme. Six of his accomplices were
also arrested, Singla revealed.
Further, The Times of India reported on June 26 that the Rajasthan
Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) “unearthed a major bitcoin scam” after four
members of an interstate gang that conned several people offering hefty
returns were arrested. Multiple complaints were filed alleging that over
Rs 15 crore (~$2.2 million) belonging to local investors were swindled
on the pretext of extraordinary returns from investing in the scheme.
“The investors were assured of soaring profits at an exponential rate.
Their unsuspecting victims invested in monivo.com but did not get their
returns. The gang then told investors to put their money into another
website identified as bet2bet,” ATS Director General Bhupendra Singh
said.
Legal Aspects of Cryptocurrency
The Indian government is in the process of deliberating on a proposed
regulatory framework for cryptocurrency drafted by an interministerial
committee headed by Finance Secretary and Secretary of Economic Affairs
Subhash Chandra Garg. He said in last month that his committee’s report
was ready to be submitted to the finance minister for approval.
However, the government has yet to announce the details of the
recommended crypto regulation, leaving room for speculation and rumors
including reports of the draft bill entitled “Banning of Cryptocurrency
and Regulation of Official Digital Currency.” News.Bitcoin.com recently provided a preliminary analysis of the leaked content of this bill. Last week, India participated
in the G20 meetings and joined other G20 countries to declare its
commitment to applying the crypto standards set by the Financial Action
Task Force (FATF).
Meanwhile, the country’s supreme court is scheduled to hear the crypto case on July 23. The court is expected to address the banking ban by the central bank after repeatedly postponing
the case. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a circular in April
last year banning regulated financial entities from providing services
to crypto businesses. The court may also ask the government for the
report with the recommended crypto regulation it previously gave the
government four weeks to submit this report.
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