Ahmedabad, Aug. 30 -- A court in Ahmedabad on Friday sentenced fourteen persons, including former BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya and ex-Amreli superintendent of police Jagdish Patel, to life imprisonment for an attempt to extort bitcoins worth Rs.32 crore from Surat builder Shailesh Bhatt.

City civil and sessions court judge BB Jadav convicted the accused under the Indian Penal Code for kidnapping, extortion, and criminal conspiracy. The case originated from the abduction of Bhatt and his business partner Kishor Paladia on February 9, 2018, near a Gandhinagar petrol pump, where the accused detained them at a farmhouse and coerced the transfer of the cryptocurrency.

The State CID-Crime filed the case after Bhatt reported the incident to the Guja...