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Bangalore: Days after political pressure mounted on Basavaraj Bommai’s government over the alleged multi-crore bitcoin scam, Srikrishna, the prime accused in the case, was arrested by the Bengaluru police on Saturday.
While Srikrishna alias Sriki is out on bail in several cases – ranging from attempt to murder, cybercrime, cryptocurrency theft and drug peddling – he was arrested on Saturday in a brawl at a luxury hotel.
Srikrishna’s arrest comes at a time when the opposition in Karnataka is accusing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of being involved with the accused and allegedly trying to save big names in multi-crore. bitcoin failure.
“We have registered a case against Srikrishna and his friend Vishnu based on the complaint of the duty manager at a hotel in Bengaluru. Charges of wrongful restraint, trespass and voluntarily causing hurt have been registered against the accused,” SD Sharanappa, DCP (East) told ThePrint. “The accused were found to be on drugs. We got him medically examined and the results confirmed that he had consumed drugs,” the DCP said.
Srikrishna’s criminal activities of stealing money from cryptocurrency exchanges, international banks, private and government companies and portals, among other cyber crimes, came to light in 2020, when he was arrested in a drugs case. The second accused, arrested by the Bengaluru Police on Saturday, has been identified as the son of the owner of a popular jewelery store chain in South India.
Karnataka government is Allegedly The 25-year-old is contemplating transferring all the cases related to Shriki to the CID.
Read also: What is bitcoin scam and who is 25 years old who has put BJP government in Karnataka in trouble?
BJP government on target of opposition
BJP sources told ThePrint that the noise of alleged cryptocurrency crime has put the state leadership in jeopardy.
in the charge sheet filed Before an additional chief metropolitan magistrate court earlier this year, Central Crime Branch (CCB) Police had claimed that Srikrishna had confessed to hacking several influential social media accounts, breaking into government portals, bitcoin exchanges, etc. The chargesheet details his partnership with Robin Khandelwal, a Kolkata-based cryptocurrency trader.
An IG-rank official with knowledge of the investigation told The Print: “While in police custody, Srikrishna told officers that he had private keys in his cloud account, which he used to seize stolen bitcoins. can be transferred to the authorities.” “In such cases, the authorities have to treat the loot as a ‘pear’. The recovery tax has to be shown to the court, permission has to be taken from the court to monetize the loot and return it to the rightful owners. This has not happened in this case,” the official said.
While the CCB police initially claimed that 31 bitcoins were recovered from Srikrishna, the claim was withdrawn.
On the political front, Congress leaders have alleged that senior BJP leaders have made “profits” from the hacker. KPCC President DK Shivakumar has demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter.
Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Legislative Assembly siddaramaiah – The first politician to raise the issue of the alleged bitcoin scam in the state – has been continuously attacking the government demanding answers on the status of the bitcoins allegedly held by the accused.
(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)
Read also: Gangs of Bengaluru: ‘Silent’ Sunil, Ajith ‘Malayalee’ and the dark underbelly of India’s IT capital
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