The Karnataka Excessive Courtroom not too long ago raised questions on why a Particular Investigation Staff of the state CID has not named a senior police officer in a Bitcoin scam-linked case. The HC raised the priority in the middle of granting anticipatory bail to a police officer accused of embezzlement of Bitcoin from an arrested worldwide hacker.
The Karnataka HC on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to Shridhar Pujar, an officer of the rank of deputy superintendent of police, who’s amongst 4 cops accused of holding the hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki, 29, in unlawful custody following his arrest in November 2020. The officers are additionally accused of giving the hacker unlawful entry to units.
“There is no such thing as a rationalization as to why the joint commissioner will not be made an accused within the current case,” the HC noticed in its order for granting anticipatory bail to Deputy SP Pujar – after the Courtroom was knowledgeable that the joint commissioner of police was a part of a WhatsApp group of cops the place the efforts to acceptable Bitcoins from the hacker was mentioned.
Within the arguments within the HC on Thursday, the extra particular public prosecutor advised the HC that the case towards the 4 former Bengaluru central crime department cops was primarily concerning the stealing of Bitcoins from the arrested hacker by the manipulation of the data of the instances registered towards the hacker and his associates in 2020.
The extra SPP advised the Courtroom that cops facilitated the disappearance of 31 Bitcoins (valued at Rs 9 crore in 2021) that have been deemed to have been seized from the hacker on January 8, 2021, by a mahazar course of.
The extra SPP additionally advised the Courtroom that the SIT had unearthed the data of a police WhatsApp group titled ‘Hacking Group’ from the telephone of one of many accused officers – which revealed data on efforts to illegally acquire Bitcoin from the arrested hacker through the use of the a number of hacking instances filed towards him.
The HC was knowledgeable by the prosecution and the counsel for Shridhar Pujar that the then joint commissioner of police (crime) for Bengaluru metropolis and the deputy commissioner of police (crime) have been a part of the WhatsApp group the place the alleged conspiracy was charted.
“The extra SPP submitted that there was a WhatsApp group of which the petitioner was additionally a member by which the investigating officers of varied felony instances the place Srikrishna alias Sriki was an accused and the textual content disclosed that the investigating officers together with accused numbers 2 to five within the current case have been actively concerned in misappropriation as alleged,” the HC noticed in its order on Thursday.
“Nevertheless, it’s pertinent to state that admittedly the joint commissioner of police can be a member of the group. He being a superior officer was an energetic member of the WhatsApp group and no matter chatting was completed by the petitioner and different investigators was beneath the very nostril of the superior officer just like the joint commissioner,” the HC stated.
“There is no such thing as a rationalization as to why the joint commissioner will not be made an accused within the current case,” the HC added.
The HC additionally referred to a press notice issued by the Bengaluru metropolis police commissioner on November 13, 2021, to state that no misappropriation of 31 seized Bitcoins had occurred and that the hacker had misled the police into believing he was in possession of the 31 Bitcoins.
“It’s identified by SPP that the circumstances beneath which the press notice was launched by the workplace of the commissioner of police of Bengaluru metropolis is to be unearthed by investigating into the matter. The very fact stays that the press notice was issued on 13/11/2021 and until date no rationalization or corrigendum was issued,” the HC stated.
“Beneath these circumstances, I’ve severe doubts of great lapses within the investigation that has been undertaken by the investigating officer of the current case. Nevertheless, I don’t discover any justifiable purpose to topic the petitioner to custodial interrogation,” the HC decide dominated whereas granting a conditional anticipatory bail plea to deputy SP Shridhar Pujar.
The HC was knowledgeable by the extra SPP that the joint commissioner of police (crime) is being investigated by the SIT based mostly on rising proof.
The SIT has by the way questioned a former head of the crime department, Sandeep Patil, an IPS officer, on two events beneath whose supervision the Bengaluru central crime department functioned within the 2020-21 interval when the alleged Bitcoin rip-off occurred.
Background of case
Earlier on Might 24, the Supreme Courtroom had stayed a Might 2 order of the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom granting digital anticipatory bail to Deputy SP Shridhar Pujar within the Bitcoin rip-off case.
The SIT approached the Supreme Courtroom on Might 15 after the HC on Might 2 ordered the discharge of Pujar, on a surety of Rs two lakh on the finish of a day of questioning – regardless of the officer not in search of bail in his petition within the HC.
The Deputy SP, who’s a former Bengaluru crime department inspector, and three of his former crime department colleagues are amongst 4 cops named by the SIT, together with a cyber professional, in an FIR alleging unlawful confinement, breach of belief by a public servant, and destruction of proof filed on January 24, 2024, in reference to the crime department’s dealing with of instances following the arrest of hacker Srikrishna alias Sriki in November 2020.
Srikrishna, 29, was arrested once more by the SIT on Might 6 this yr in reference to the June 2017 theft of 60.6 Bitcoins valued at Rs 1.14 crore in 2017 from a cryptocurrency alternate in Tumkur, Karnataka which was not prosecuted by the crime department in 2020.
The 4 former crime department officers accused of wrongdoing within the instances filed in 2020 towards the hacker are Shridhar Pujar (now a deputy SP), inspectors Prashanth Babu, Chandradhar S R and Lakshmikanthaiah together with personal cyber professional Okay S Santhosh Kumar who assisted the probe within the hacker’s case in 2020.
The investigations within the case have discovered dozens of procedural lapses by the CCB in its probe towards the hacker and his associates – together with unlawful detention, and no documentation of the logins, amongst others.
The dealing with of the instances involving the hacker by the police beneath the BJP regime in Karnataka after the arrests in November 2020 resulted in allegations of corruption by the Congress when it was in Opposition between 2020-2023.
The SIT was constituted by the Congress authorities on June 30, 2023, after it got here to energy, to probe the Bitcoin rip-off.
The hacker Sriki has stated in police statements which can be on file in cost sheets filed by the crime department that he was compelled handy over all cryptocurrency in his possession to the police when he was in police custody between November 2020 and January 2021.