The founders of a cryptocurrency exchange in Bengaluru, whose services were used by the city police in 2021 to validate the disappearance of 31 Bitcoins transferred to a police wallet after they were seized from international hacker Srikrishna Ramesh, alias Sriki, have applied an anticipatory bail.
Sathvik V and Harish BV, the founders of Unocoin Technologies Pvt Ltd, one of the first Bitcoin exchanges in India, sought anticipatory bail in the Bitcoin case involving Sriki after a special investigation team from the Investigation Department Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Karnataka will arrest Santhosh Kumar. KS, CEO of Group Cyber ID (GCID) Technologies, and police inspector Prashanth Babu, former technical cell chief of Bengaluru city police, in the January 25 Bitcoin scam case.
Santhosh Kumar is accused of illegally accessing the crypto wallet of Robin Khandelwal, Sriki's associate and accountant, during the investigation into the hacking cases against Sriki. Santhosh Kumar allegedly accessed the accountant's crypto wallet at the behest of the police and transferred Bitcoin worth Rs 1.83 lakh to his crypto wallet.
in a new FIR TREE Cased in the Bitcoin scam on January 24, the SIT named Santhosh Kumar and four former Central Crime Branch (CCB) officers: Sridhar Poojar (now DySP), inspectors Prashanth Babu, Chandradhar SR and Lakshmikanthaiah. They are accused of illegal confinement of the hacker and his accountant Robin Khandelwal, breach of trust by a public servant and destruction of evidence.
SIT investigates Bitcoin scam dating back to 2020-21 when the BJP was in power in Karnataka due to allegations of large-scale corruption by police and politicians following the arrest of the hacker in November 2020. It was formed by the Congress government of Karnataka in July 2023, shortly after arriving to power in the state. for “investigating cases related to Bitcoin laundering and other cases.”
The Karnataka Congress has alleged that police and politicians collected bribes through cryptocurrencies from Srini and her associates to undermine cases reported during the Bharatiya Janata PartyThe state government.
Sriki, who was initially caught in a Bitcoin online drug purchase case by the Crime Branch of Bengaluru police in November 2020, was found to be involved in multiple hacking cases. It included the theft of Rs 11.5 crore in 2019 from the e-procurement cell of the e-governance unit of the Karnataka government, as well as hacking of poker and gaming sites, police said.
Court denies bail to Unocoin founders
On Saturday, a Bengaluru district court said the anticipatory interim bail sought by Sathvik V and Harish BV cannot be granted without hearing the SIT's objections. The court said: “It is necessary to hear the prosecution before passing any order on this application. Therefore, the requested provisional release cannot be granted.”
Sathvik V was called as an expert by the Bengaluru police in January 2021 to certify that 31 Bitcoins that were seized from a cloud crypto wallet belonging to Sriki on January 8, 2021, had disappeared when the police wallet was opened again on January 22. He has been a Bitcoin advocate for over a decade and gave a talk on the future of Bitcoin at one of the first international Bitcoin conferences in Bengaluru in 2013.
Harish BV was an expert during the seizure of Robin Khandelwal's crypto wallet.
Role of Unocoin founders
Sathvik V was called as an expert on January 22, 2021 by the cyber crime unit of the Bengaluru Police Crime Branch for opening a police crypto wallet on Unocoin in which Bitcoin seized from Sriki had been transferred on 8 January 2021. Sriki's wallet was accessed by the police in a case of alleged hacking of sites such as Casino 143 and Poker Saint, operated by gaming company Pacific Gaming Pvt Ltd, where the hacker allegedly stole data that resulted in losses for the company.
Initially, when the police seized Sriki's cloud cryptocurrency on January 8, 2021, in the presence of witnesses and Santhosh Kumar, the recovery of 31 Bitcoins was reported.
“The wallet password was 'property123'. As per the directions of the investigating officer, Mr. Chandradhara SR, we have changed the password of the custody wallet as it can be used from anywhere as the wallet was a cloud wallet,” the panchnama report dated 8 January 2021 regarding the seizure of Sriki cryptocurrency. wallet.
"The details of the modified password credentials were printed and sealed in a cover on which we, the panchas and the investigation officer, also signed and handed over to the investigation officer for further safekeeping and the cover of the envelope was sealed with wax," states the panchnama. sharpened by cyber expert Santhosh Kumar and handed over to the cyber police.
On January 22, 2021, when the same wallet was accessed with the password in the sealed envelope, it was found to contain BTC of 64.38176356 and an available BTC of 186.81152676, says a second panchnama report of January 22. the amount to a police wallet, a pop-up message read “TX now on Blockchain.”
“Post this, as the transaction was not showing in the blockchain explorer, we informed UNOCOIN experts and they explained that the transaction did not happen because the private key for the said wallet was not available and the application was modified to show a fake one. “The transactions and wallet are from an exchange and it will not be possible to transact on the wallet without the authorized key, also called private key,” says a January 22, 2021 panchanama report that was witnessed by Santhosh Kumar and Sathvik V.
Harish BV, the second founder of Unocoin, was the expert present during the police seizure of a cloud wallet on WazirX belonging to Khandewal, where an available balance of 0.08627702 BTC was transferred to a wallet created by Unocoin Technologies Pvt Ltd under the name wallet. “cybercrime”.
Police response to the disappearance of seized Bitcoins
In November 2021, Bengaluru police claimed that Sriki tricked them into believing that they had seized 31 bitcoins from his personal e-wallet, leading to a public disclosure in January 2021 of the seizure of 31 bitcoins worth $9 million. rupees to the hacker.
The Bengaluru crime branch police, in an official note in November 2021, said that a “Bitcoin account claimed by the accused as his personal account” with 31 bitcoins was actually an “active wallet of an exchange” for the which Srikrishna did not have a private key. which led to the realization that the hacker had tricked the police into believing they had confiscated 31 bitcoins.
“During the seizure process, accused Srikrishna displayed a BTC wallet containing 31.8 BTC. The wallet password was changed in the presence of cyber experts and government panchanamas and the entire procedure was recorded under mahazar and presented before the court,” Bengaluru police said.
“Subsequently, court permission was obtained to use the password to transfer said Bitcoins to a police wallet account. Upon reaching the said wallet shown by the accused Srikrishna, it showed 186,811 Bitcoins (instead of the seized 31 Bitcoins),” they said.
“On investigation, cyber experts were of the opinion that the said account claimed by the accused as his personal account was, in fact, a hot wallet of an exchange and the accused did not have a private key for this. Therefore, said account was left intact and, as a result, no Bitcoins were transferred to the police wallet,” they added.
SIT findings on Bitcoin scam
On January 5, 2021, on the instructions of now-arrested Police Inspector Prashanth Babu, Santhosh Kumar is alleged to have gained access to crypto wallets and bank and email accounts of Sriki and Robin Khandelwal and changed usernames and passwords on absence of witnesses. or court orders, the SIT has said.
According to the SIT, Sriki was also allowed to use mixers that allow the transfer of Bitcoins to be camouflaged and data from a laptop that the police gave to the hacker was deleted as part of efforts to hide evidence of illegal activities.
In police statements recorded in the charge sheets filed by the CCB, Sriki said he was forced to hand over all cryptocurrencies in his possession to the police.
