Two private cyber security experts' offices were also searched in Bengaluru as the CID had information that Sriki was interrogated there.
Published Oct 09, 2023 | 7:55 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 10, 2023 | 11:46 AM
Bitcoin - scam
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Saturday, 7 October, conducted searches and raids at the houses and other places connected to four police officers — including a DySP-rank officer — and two cyber-tech experts in connection with the Bitcoin scam.
The SIT is probing the multi-crore Bitcoin scandal as a whole — and, in particular, the recently registered FIR against the Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials who had earlier investigated the case
During the searches, the SIT seized four laptops, eight mobile phones, two storage devices connected to the network, around 10 hard drives, five pen drives, a memory card, and other allegedly incriminating documents.
The SIT team conducted searches and raids at a total of nine places belonging to four CCB police officials: DySP Sridhar Poojar, police inspectors Prashanth Babu, Chandradhar, and Lakshmikant.
The SIT also conducted searches and raids at offices belonging to two private cyber security experts who were roped in by the CCB officials while they were probing the hacking of the e-procurement portal by Srikrishna alias Sriki — the prime accused in the case.
The two cyber experts — identified as Santhosh and Gagan Jain — have their IT firms located at Jayaprakash Nagar (JP Nagar) and Bommanahalli, respectively, in Bengaluru.
Sriki was apparently taken there for interrogation by CCB police officials soon after his arrest. The firms dealt with cyber forensics and Darknet investigation.
The SIT reportedly recovered a considerable amount of material about the case from these offices.
According to CID sources, these two cyber experts, upon the instruction of the accused CCB officials, tampered with the seized electronic gadgets, fabricated documents, and also accessed the e-wallets of Sriki during the investigation for their personal gain.
Investigations by the SIT revealed that the accused CCB officials had taken Sriki into police custody for investigations, but taken him to the offices of private cyber security experts for questioning and to get access to his account to recover bitcoins.
The CCB police taking Sriki to offices of private cyber security experts for investigation was against saw, police sources told South First.
The SIT team probing the FIR against the CCB had issued at least four notices to the accused police officers seeking the details of the hacking into the e-procurement portal and gadgets such as laptops and phones that they had seized from Sriki during the time of his arrest.
As the SIT team did not get any response from the accused, it decided to search their places, a senior police officer told South First.
Meanwhile, the SIT arrested one of Sriki’s associates from Punjab on 29 September. The accused has been identified as Harwinder Singh, a farmer from Kapurthala.
The police found out that the proceeds of ₹60 lakh from the ₹1.05 crore siphoned off from the e-procurement portal had been transferred to Singh’s bank account.
The SIT, around two weeks ago, had arrested two more beneficiaries of the money-laundering angle, identified as Nithin Meshram and Darshith Patel. While Meshram was arrested from Nagpur, Patel was picked up from Bengaluru. The SIT conducted raids at Patel’s places in Koramangala and Bommanahalli.
With the three recent arrests, the total number of arrests in the Bitcoin case has reached 21, a senior police officer told South First.
On 17 December, 2019, a financial consultant of the e-Procurement Cell, Shylaja SK, lodged a complaint with the CID’s cybercrime police station in Bengaluru.
According to her complaint, she came across unauthorised fund transfers to the tune of ₹7.37 crore while verifying Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) refunds.
Investigations revealed that ₹1.05 crore was illegally transferred to bank accounts in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
In all, a total of ₹11.55 crore had been siphoned off from the online portal of the Centre for e-Governance under the Karnataka government.
Based on her complaint, an FIR was registered, and the CID sleuths initiated an investigation.
