Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India]: The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 97.79 crore of Raj Kundra under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, an official said. According to ED officials, the attached properties include a residential flat in Juhu, a residential bungalow in Pune and equity shares. "Enforcement Directorate (ED), Mumbai Zonal Office has provisionally attached immovable and movable properties worth Rs 97.79 crore of Ripu Suda Kundra alias Raj Kundra under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The properties include a residential flat located in Juhu, currently in the name of Smt Shilpa Shetty, a residential bungalow located in Pune and equity shares in Variable Tech Pte Ltd in the names of Raj Kundra, Late Ami Bhardwaj, Ajay Bhardwaj, Vivek Bhardwaj. , initiated investigation on the basis of multiple FIRs lodged by Maharashtra Police and Delhi Police against several MLM agents like Simpi Bhardwaj, Mahendra Bhardwaj alleging that they were selling scams with false promises of 10 percent returns per month in the form of Bitcoins. A huge amount of money was collected from the innocent public in the form of Bitcoin (worth Rs 6600 crore in 2017 alone).The collected bitcoins were to be used for Bitcoin. “Mining investors were supposed to get huge returns in crypto assets, but the promoter cheated the investors and hid the ill-gotten bitcoins,” the ED said. Amit Bhardwaj, the brainchild and promoter of the Gain Bitcoin Ponzi scam, was said to set up a Bitcoin mining farm in Ukraine. The said Bitcoins were obtained from crime proceeds collected by Amit Bhardwaj from gullible investors. Since the deal did not fall through, Kundra still has 285 Bitcoins, which are currently worth more than Rs.Rs 150 crore,” the ED said. Earlier, several search operations were conducted in this case and 3 people were arrested, namely Simpi Bhardwaj on December 17, 2023, Nitin Gaur on December 29, 2023, and Nikhil Mahajan on January 16, 2023. ED said, "All of them are currently in judicial custody." The main accused Ajay Bhardwaj and Mahendra Bhardwaj are still absconding. Earlier, ED had attached assets worth Rs 69 crore.In this, the prosecution complaint has been filed on 11.06.2019 and the supplementary prosecution complaint has been filed on 14.02.2024. ED said, the honorable special PMLA court has taken cognizance of this.Further investigation is underway.