Bitcoin Forum

Just three days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a public advisory which warned against the use and trade of digital currencies, authorities have carried out the first bitcoin raid in the country.

In Ahmedabad, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the premises of Mahim Gupta, the man behind India’s biggest trading platform, buysellbitco.in. A separate raid was carried out in another part of the city, although the authorities do not appear to have found the second suspect in the office.

Violation of foreign exchange regulations

During the preliminary investigation, the Enforcement Directorate found that buysellbitco.in was in clear violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, reports DNA India.

“We have found that through the website 400 persons have recorded 1,000 transactions that amount to a few crores of rupees. We are gathering the data of the transactions, name of the people who have transacted in the virtual currency from Gupta’s server that is hired in the US,” said an ED official.

“At present, we believe that this is a violation of foreign exchange regulations of the country. If we are able to establish [a] money laundering aspect then he can be arrested.”

Authorities estimate the total volume of transactions on buysellbitco.in was between Rs20-30 crore, or $3.2 to $4.8m. The unnamed ED official said:

“The biggest threat is that without recording your transaction in [an] official foreign currency platform, money can be transferred like hawala with the use of this transaction. We are examining such instances, if any, here.”

http://www.coindesk.com/indian-authorities-swoop-buysellbitco/

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Indian authorities are always desperate to shut down and terrorize small businesses. They have turned a blind eye towards big corporate houses stealing billions in taxes. First they fucked up Paypal which was used by freelancers and small online businesses by series of stupid regulations and now its the turn of bitcoin.

Please don't turn this into one of those "it's the end of BTC run for your lives" threads.

They inflate rupia and it is normal people try to escape this hidden robbery.
So indian goverment will hate now bitcoin as much as gold or any other thing which helps common Indians to keep value of their private savings.   

"it's the end of BTC run for your lives" :oBTC ;)

It's been such a huge year for bitcoin.  Too bad the year is coming to an end with the two most populas countries in the world clamping down on bitcoin.

Hopefully other countries don't start doing the same in 2014. That would be a real buzz kill.

this news topic is not a story about india hating bitcoins. its yet another story about governments hating basement dwelling teenagers thinking they have the experience and trust to handle millions of fiat without bothering to get licenced to show they have trust.

seriously guys. if your going to touch fiat as part of your business.. GET REGULATED!!

problem with places like india is there is no regulation and by raiding or urging exchanges to shut down is essentially making it illegal to run an exchange until the government choices to make some regulations for it if they choose to do so at all.  that's certainly not good news for the people of india who want easy access to bitcoins, or business owners who want to get involved with bitcoin in india.

That hate it when people do what they want with their money.