The Karnataka High Court has asked a special investigation team (SIT) probing a Bitcoin scam during the previous BJP government’s tenure not to take precipitative action against a police officer in a case registered over alleged tampering of electronic evidence seized at the start of the case in 2020.
The police officer, Sridhar Poojar, was the investigating officer in the 2020 case against hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki, 28, and his associates. Poojar has sought the quashing of an FIR filed last month by the CID against unnamed Bengaluru police officials for allegedly tampering with electronic evidence seized from Sriki and his associates.
The high court on September 12 asked SIT officials not to take any “action in the absence of any incriminating material against the petitioner” till October 9 when the case is listed for hearing.
The CID had filed an FIR on August 8, 2023, for alleged tampering of evidence against officials of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) unit of the Bengaluru police that had investigated Sriki between 2020 and 2022. An officer of the rank of a deputy superintendent of police, K Ravishankar, who is a part of the Bitcoin scam probe SIT, filed a case of destruction of documents and cheating against unnamed officers of its sister unit, the CCB, in connection with the alleged manipulation of electronic devices seized from Sriki and his associates.
The CID has quoted a digital forensics report dated February 20, 2023, to state that two pen drives seized from the accused on November 9, 2020, at the time of the first batch of arrests had been manipulated in police custody, and that a MacBook and a hard disk seized on November 17, 2020, were found to have been tampered between November 18 and 20. A second MacBook seized on November 19, 2020, was allegedly tampered with between November 20 and 21.
The electronic and computer devices were tampered with at the premises of the CCB office in Bengaluru between November 9 and December 12, 2020, the CID has alleged in its complaint against the CCB to the Bengaluru police.
Poojar has denied the allegations in his petition.
The alleged Bitcoin scam case 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 state BJP and police officials received kickbacks in cryptocurrency after the arrest of the accused in 2020.
On June 30 this year, the Karnataka police functioning under the new Congress government ordered the creation of the SIT to probe the Bitcoin scam.
In statements given to the police, Sriki 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 a part of the chargesheet in one of the cases filed against the hacker in 2021.
In November 2020, the Central Crime Branch of the Bengaluru police had stumbled on the suspected possession of a large quantity of Bitcoin by the hacker Srikrishna following his arrest in a case of procuring drugs over the darknet using cryptocurrency.
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The investigations in the drug case led to the CCB filing cases against Sriki and his associates for allegedly hacking online poker sites and cryptocurrency exchanges to acquire wealth through illegal means.
Sriki’s arrest also revealed his role in a July 2019 hacking of the state e-procurement cell where Rs 11.5 crore was stolen. Sriki told the police that he was involved in stealing cryptocurrency from international sites, including virtual crypto exchanges like the Bitfinex exchange.
While Rs 1.43 crore of the Rs 11.5 crore stolen from the e-procurement cell has been recovered by the Enforcement Directorate, there has been no other major recovery of stolen funds or cryptocurrency that was allegedly stolen by the gang from crypto exchanges.
First published on: 14-09-2023 at 10:32 IST
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