A special investigation team of the Karnataka police probing a Bitcoin scam involving alleged corruption by police officers and politicians is looking at whether international hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki, arrested in 2020, had access to electronic devices while in prison.
The SIT is looking at whether Sriki (31) transferred cryptocurrency that was in his possession to bribe police officials and others while in police custody for nearly 82 days and subsequently while in judicial custody, as he has claimed. He was arrested by the Bengaluru crime branch police.
The Bitcoin scam involving Sriki and his associates has been at the centre of a political controversy in Karnataka with the Congress alleging that top leaders of the BJP, which was in power at the time of the hacker’s arrest, and police officials had received kickbacks in cryptocurrency.
The SIT, created under the Criminal Investigation Department after the Congress government came to power, is looking for devices said to have been accessed by the hacker following his arrest and detention in police and judicial custody, sources said.
The SIT has also sought cancellation of bail granted earlier to the hacker and his associates in order to facilitate investigations including verification of the hacker’s claims of having transferred cryptocurrency to police officials. The court is yet to arrive at a decision on the SIT plea.
“He was in police custody for nearly 82 days after arrest. There were allegations that he was in possession of stolen cryptocurrency, but nothing was recovered in the police cases. These aspects are being investigated,” a police source said.
As part of efforts to understand the hacker’s association with cryptocurrency, the SIT has interviewed some of his past associates, including those who were at the centre of a criminal case filed against him in 2018. The case involving the son of a politician was believed to have emerged out of a dispute linked to cryptocurrency but was portrayed as arising from other reasons.
In statements given to the police in the past, the hacker has claimed that he gave away Bitcoins that were in his possession to the police following his arrest in 2020. “I understood the case scenario that even if I do not give them the Bitcoins they can use forensic methods to find the Bitcoins after a talk with the investigating officer. So post consultations I voluntarily accepted [sic] to give away the Bitcoins which I had kept in various wallets in different cryptocurrencies,” reads a statement attributed to Sriki which is part of the chargesheet in one of the cases filed against him in 2021.
“Earlier when the BJP was in power, a Bitcoin scam running into lakhs of rupees is reported to have occurred through virtual transfers with several people involved in the transactions and the issue was hushed up without proper investigations,” Home Minister G Parameshwara said while announcing new investigations in the hacker’s cases in June.
The Congress has suggested in the past that there could be links between the release of Sriki from prison in April 2021 and the movement of Bitcoins stolen from the Bitfinex exchange in August 2016, in which the hacker has claimed involvement.
Blockchain analysts reported on social media on April 14, 2021, that nearly 12,000 Bitcoins out of the 1,19,754 stolen during the Bitfinex heist had moved for the first time in over four years. Sriki was in the Bengaluru central prison when the stolen Bitcoins were moved. He was released on bail a few days later.
“The claim made on Whale Alert (a social media account tracking bitcoin movements) that 14,682 stolen Bitfinex bitcoins were transferred is completely unsubstantiated. There is nothing to suggest that it originated from Bangalore,” the Bengaluru police said in a statement on November 12, 2021.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First published on: 10-12-2023 at 19:28 IST
