Indian Police Rescued Three People, Including Two Cryptocurrency Traders Who Had Been Held For Two Weeks

The Indian police have just rescued three hostages that had been held for two weeks. Among the three people who were held captive, two of them are cryptocurrency traders. The kidnappers demanded a sum of 80 Bitcoin ($840,000) in exchange for their release.

The authorities took seven culprits into custody. According to the Hindustan Times, they are believed to be involved in many extortion, loot, kidnapping, and robbery cases. In the operation to rescue the victims, the police recovered two pistols, three SUVs, and one country-made gun.

The three hostages are 44-year-old Malang Shah, 19-year-old Luftan Shaikh, and 36-year-old Mohammad Shazad. They said that the gang tortured them with sticks, belts, and other tools.

It is not clear why the value of Bitcoin and crore demand do not match. One of the possible reasons is the fluctuations between INR/USD and BTC/USD. It is believed that the ransom was not paid, but we have not heard anything about whether the kidnappers had successfully extorted money from the hostages.

This is not the first of such case which people are kidnapped in exchange for cryptocurrency.

Earlier this year, the South African police arrested two suspects who had captured a teenage boy for $100,000 worth of Bitcoin. The victim was returned to his family a few days after the kidnap took place.

Another similar case occurred in Norway. The wife of one of the wealthiest men in this country was held captive, and the kidnappers demanded $10 million worth of Monero. However, recently, the local authority announced that she was probably killed and the ransom was just a cover-up for the real crime.