Bengaluru: A businessman, who was trying to convert cash into cryptocurrency, was attacked by a seven-member gang and robbed of Rs 2 crore in MS Palya near Vidyaranyapura Wednesday evening.The victim is 33-year-old Harsha V, a resident of Kengeri and owner of a brokerage firm, Aerivon Oxygen Pvt Ltd in Kengeri Satellite Town. He told police that he had taken Rs 2 crore loan to start a cold-pressed oil business and was planning to procure machinery from Germany. He decided to convert the cash into cryptocurrency and had informed his friends Prakash Agrawal and Rakshit about it.They, in turn, introduced him to a person named Narayana Bharath, who referred him to one Benjamin. Harsha called Benjamin over the phone and asked him to convert Rs 2 crore to cryptocurrency. Benjamin told him to get the money to MS Palya Circle. Accordingly, Harsha and his friends Nagendra and Shanta Kumar reached the location with Rs 2 crore by 3pm.Benjamin took them to a shop AK Enterprises, where he and two other people known to Benjamin received the cash and counted it with a cash counting machine. Around 4.30pm, a gang of six to seven people barged into the shop, threatened him with knives and asked them to part with the money. When he resisted, he was attacked. The gang snatched the money and his mobile phone. The miscreants locked everyone into the shop and escaped.Subsequently, Harsha, Benjamin, and his friends opened the shutter and came outside. Harsha was shocked as Benjamin and his friends also ran away. Harsha suspects Benjamin and his friends’ involvement in the dacoity. A case under the BNS section 310 (dacoity) has been registered at Vidyaranyapura police station.
