- SIT in Karnataka received authorization to probe 4 ex-CCB officers about evidence-altering.
- The officers were accused of accessing cryptocurrency wallets, which led to illegal Bitcoin transactions.
- SIT linked officers to unauthorized access of 4,000 Bitcoins worth Rs 850 crore in 2020.
The Karnataka government has given the Special Investigation Team (SIT) permission to probe corruption charges against four former Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) officers. The officers are accused of altering evidence related to the arrest of Srikrishna Ramesh, aka Sriki, who was named in 2020.
The SIT, operating under the state’s Criminal Investigation Department, is probing the broader Bitcoin scam linked to Sriki. The investigation received sanction under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, enabling it to examine corruption-related offenses involving public servants.
Allegations of Evidence Tampering and Bitcoin Transfers
In connection with the case, the SIT has arrested four officers including Deputy Superintendent Sridhar Pujar, inspectors Prashanth Babu, Chandradhar S R, and Lakshmikanthaiah. SIT findings indicate that these officers had tampered with the devices seized from Sriki and his associate Robin Khandelwal.
Investigators say the officers used private cyber experts to access and manipulate digital evidence. One such expert, K S Santhosh Kumar, is accused of transferring Bitcoin worth Rs 1.83 lakh from an accountant’s wallet to his own. He runs a private cybersecurity firm in Bengaluru.
In a January 2024 FIR, the SIT named Kumar together with the four police officers. The charges include illegal confinement, breach of trust by public servants and destruction of evidence. The complaint was made at Cyber Crime police station of the CID. More allegations included procedural lapses in the investigation. The CCB is said not to have logged passwords, data, or computer use records. In addition, officers also apparently provided Sriki with a Rs 60,000 laptop to access his Amazon Web Server account without recording the data retrieved.
Cyber expert Kumar is said to have on January 5, 2021, accessed Sriki’s crypto wallets, emails, and bank accounts. The SIT noted in its report that the access that took place occurred without legal authorization, witnesses, or court oversight. The SIT also referenced a forensic report from the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC). It revealed one of the laptops seized from Sriki had been used to access crypto wallets and online platforms while in police custody.
Claims of Large-Scale Crypto Misappropriation
At the time of his 2020 arrest, Sriki reportedly told police he possessed 400 to 500 Bitcoins. However, those assets were not recovered by the CCB. While the hacker was in custody, the SIT suspects that up to Rs 850 crore, worth up to 4,000 Bitcoins in 2020, were accessed.
According to the SIT, voluntary statements by Sriki and technical witnesses support claims that police officers facilitated illegal access to the hacker’s digital wallets. The CDAC forensic report supports these claims.
The same officers are also accused in another FIR filed in September 2023 about tampering with two laptops seized in the 2020 arrest. In that case, the SIT has not yet been granted sanction under the Prevention of Corruption Act to file charges of corruption. It was in November 2020 that Sriki was first arrested for using Bitcoin to purchase drugs on the dark web. Investigating his arrest revealed several more cybercrimes: thefts from the Karnataka e-procurement portal as well as Unocoin exchange.
In June 2023, the Karnataka Congress government formed the SIT to investigate the alleged Bitcoin scam during the BJP regime. The scam involves digital assets allegedly stolen from international exchanges and gaming platforms. The SIT must obtain further sanctions under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code to file charges. The investigation remains ongoing.
