A court in Delhi has granted bail to Ayush Varshney, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the co-founder and chief technical officer of Darwin Labs Pvt Ltd, amidst allegations of a massive cryptocurrency fraud amounting to Rs 20,000 crore.
In his ruling, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Mayank Goel highlighted the lack of evidence suggesting that Varshney had persuaded any victims or received funds from them. The magistrate noted that Varshney had cooperated with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during five rounds of investigations, indicating no intent to flee from the legal proceedings.
Varshney was apprehended by immigration officials at Mumbai airport last month and subsequently arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the GainBitcoin crypto fraud allegations. The CBI claims that Varshney’s firm played a crucial role in creating the technological framework of the fraudulent operation, which included platforms such as GBMiners.com and various cryptocurrency wallets and gateways.
In his bail application, Varshney argued that he should not be held responsible if others misuse his software, likening his situation to that of a shopkeeper who sells a knife but is not accountable for its use in a crime.
The GainBitcoin Ponzi scheme was reportedly initiated by a company named Variabletech Pte. Limited, which allegedly lured investors with promises of significant returns on their cryptocurrency investments. The funds raised from these investors were purportedly misappropriated.
The scheme was said to have been launched in 2015 by Amit Bhardwaj, a computer science graduate from Maharashtra, along with his associates. They assured investors a monthly return of 10% for 18 months on Bitcoin investments, claiming the funds would be used for “cloud mining of bitcoins.”
ACJM Goel stated in his order that records indicate Amit Bhardwaj was conducting crypto trading and soliciting investments from clients through gainbitcoin.com even prior to the development of the Mining Pool Software App by Darwin Labs Pvt Ltd, which included Varshney.
Nirbhay Thakur, a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express, specializes in covering district courts in Delhi and has reported extensively on numerous high-profile cases since 2023. An economics graduate from Delhi University, he has a keen interest in data journalism and has been involved in various significant investigations and long-form articles.
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