Cuttack: Thirty-two persons, most of whom were from West Bengal, were held from a hotel in Cuttack on Thursday in connection with a cryptocurrency fraud case that led to a kidnapping, police said. Acting on a tip-off, a raid was conducted at a hotel in the Sikharpur area.

As per preliminary investigation, four individuals, including one from Bhubaneswar, duped people, promising them high returns on investment through cryptocurrency trading platforms. After duping the investors, most of whom were from West Bengal, the ‘fraudsters’ were hiding in a place near Puri.

After getting to know their whereabouts, some of the investors allegedly abducted the ‘fraudsters’ from Puri and brought them on Wednesday to the hotel in Cuttack, where they had forcefully kept them, police said. “We will investigate the case from two angles -- cryptocurrency fraud and kidnapping. We will also verify whether any investor from Odisha became a victim of the fraud,” Cuttack DCP Khilari Rishikesh Dnyandeo said.

Four high-value cars were seized in the operation, he said, adding that the investigation would continue.