Bitcoin Case: SIT arrest police inspector, CEO of IT firm in Bengaluru for destruction of evidence in the scam

The police believe there is enough evidence of their involvement in the illegal confinement of the key accused — Srikrishna alias Sriki, a hacker — as well as collusion with fellow investigating officials, and destruction of vital evidence pertaining to the Bitcoin case.

Apart from the one police officer and the CEO who were held on Thursday, the other three police inspectors are being questioned, although they are yet to be arrested.

State top brass DG-IGP Alok Mohan confirmed the arrests on Thursday.

“We have arrested two persons, including a police inspector, in connection with the Bitcoin case being investigated by our SIT officers. The other arrested person is from a private company,” Alok Mohan told reporters.

Also read: Everyone from Sriki to CCB sleuths under SIT scanner in Bitcoin scam

Fresh FIR filed

The SIT officials had registered the fresh FIR in the case on Wednesday against five persons, including four police inspectors who were the then-investigating officials of three cases related to the Bitcoin scam.

The three earlier cases include a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) case earlier registered against Srikrishna alias Sriki with the Kempegowda Nagar police station, which subsequently led the police to register another case at the Cottonpete police station in November 2020 (Crime No 153/2020) against Sriki for hacking into several international/foreign exchanges and siphoning away cash.

Though the Cottonpete police did not make any recovery in the case, they had filed a charge sheet after interrogating Sriki, police sources said.

The third case was that of a cheating and criminal breach of trust charges registered with the Ashok Nagar police station based on a complaint by a 50-year-old woman named Yashoda Devi, who was duped of ₹28 lakh by Sriki, his associate Robin Khandelwal, and his brother Ajit Khandelwal.

Sections in the new FIR

According to the fresh FIR by the SIT, the prime accused — A1 in the case is Santhosh Kumar KS, CEO of GCID Technologies, an IT firm situated in HSR Layout— followed by the other four accused police inspectors— Lakshmikanthaiah, Chandradhar, Prashanth Babu DM, and Shridhar K Pujar.

While Lakshmikanthaiah, Chandradhar and Shridhar K Pujar were the then police inspectors attached with the CCB, Prashanth Babu DM was serving as a police inspector with the Technical Support Centre in Adugodi. Sridhar K Pujar is a DySP rank officer at present, the FIR stated.

It was police inspector Prashanth Babu who had roped in an external private agency — GCID Technologies and its CEO Santhosh Kumar — directly into the Bitcoin investigation and even introduced the CEO to the other three police inspectors of the CCB asserting that he could be of immense help, SIT sources told South First.

Also read: SIT set up to reinvestigate Bitcoin scam, says Karnataka minister

Evidence tampered

Probing the Cottonpete case that was registered suo-motu on 9 August, 2023, based on a complaint from the SIT’s Investigating Officer (IO) K Ravishankar, who was a DySP in the CID then — against the involved CCB officials — the SIT officials, citing forensic reports dated 20 July, 2023, alleged that vital evidence was tampered with at the CCB’s office in Chamarajpete and other places between 9 November, 2020, and 16 December, 2020, by the accused officers as part of a criminal conspiracy.

SIT sources had told South First that the then-CCB investigating officers had deleted technical information of some transactions, and are even said to have planted additional files as evidence to dilute the case and to protect the accused.

The SIT that took charge of the case on 18 July, 2023, received various electronic gadgets such as two MacBooks, pen drives, a hard disk, and documents that were under investigation and were probing further into them to dig out what the then CCB police inspectors and the CEO of the IT company had done to the case.

The fresh FIR was registered suo-motu against the five under Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 343 and 344 (wrongful confinement for 10 or more days), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 426 (mischief), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 204 (destruction of document or electronic record to prevent its production as evidence), 34 (common intention), 36 (effect caused party by act and partly by omission); and 37 (cooperation by doing one of several acts constituting an offence).

Also read: SIT registers FIR against CCB officers who probed Bitcoin case

Illegally detained

According to the complainant, who is also the Investigating Officer (IO) K Ravishankar, accused No 10 Srikrishna alias Sriki was illegally detained for three days — from 14 to 17 November, 2020 — at the Bengaluru City Armed Reserves (CAR) Central guesthouse.

Accused No 12 Robin Khandelwal was illegally kept under detention for four days from 14 to 18 November, 2020, at the same guesthouse in CAR Central on Mysore Road.

Robin Khandelwal was also kept for an additional 13 days under illegal detention from 18 to 30 November, 2020, at the CCB’s office in Chamarajpete.

During the two accused persons’ illegal detentions, investigating official Lakshmikanthaiah attached with the Cottonpete police station, police inspector Sridhar K Pujar attached with the Ashok Nagar police station, and Bengaluru City Cybercrime police inspector and investigating officer Chandradhar had interrogated them.

During the course of the investigation by these three police inspectors, the SIT had come across various deviations and discrepancies that they have enumerated for which they have collected evidence, SIT sources told South First.

Sriki and Robin Khandelwal were illegally taken to the GCID Technologies office on several occasions in December 2020 and January 2021 as part of some “mischief” by the then CCB officials.

After Prashanth Babu introduced Santhosh Kumar to the other CCB officials, the CEO was given a free hand with the team probing the digital footprints of the Bitcoin scam, SIT sources told South First.

Also Read: CID officials conduct searches at residences of hacker Sriki, associates in Bengaluru

Transfer of bitcoins

According to the SIT officials, Santhosh Kumar on 30, 31 December, 2020, and 6 January, 2021, illegally accessed the crypto-currency wallet of Robin Khandelwal and transferred ₹1,83,624 worth of bitcoins to other wallets.

Based on this, the SIT officials contended that police inspectors Lakshmikanthaiah and Chandradhar had misused their official powers to gain illegal profits.

The SIT officials also found out that while probing Sriki’s hacking case registered with the Cottonpete police, inspector Lakshmikanthaiah, on 27 December, had illegally taken Robin Khandelwal’s One Plus mobile phone and deleted valuable evidence from the device.

On 5 January, 2021, in the presence of  Robin Khandelwal and inspector Prashanth Babu, on the direction of CEO Santhosh Kumar, the team accessed both Sriki’s and Robin Khandelwal’s crypto-currency wallets, email IDs, bank accounts, usernames and passwords, without mentioning anything about these activities in the registry of their investigating report.

Prashanth Babu carried out all these illegal activities without taking permission from the court, or without a panchanama, SIT sources stated.

Purchased laptop for ₹60,000

On 8 December, 2020, inspector Prashanth Babu purchased a laptop for ₹60,000 and made Sriki, then in police custody, hack into certain other websites and commit illegal activities which emerged during the technical investigation by SIT officials.

It was also learnt by the SIT officials that the police department’s Technical Support Centre and the GCID Technologies office were connected with this laptop remotely while Sriki was carrying out his hacking activities.

According to SIT officials, the accused Sriki had hacked into the Amazon servers; however, the information related to the wallet files or the Amazon server have not been mentioned as evidence and these have been cleared or the “bash history” has been deleted — the reason the SIT has charged the CCB officials with destruction of evidence.