CID says Bengaluru Crime Branch officers tampered with devices seized in Bitcoin-for-drugs case | Bangalore News
The Criminal Investigation Department of the Karnataka police has booked officers of the Central Crime Branch police, its sister unit, in connection with alleged manipulation of electronic devices seized from associates of hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki, accused of buying drugs on the darknet using cryptocurrency.
A CID officer of the rank of a deputy superintendent of police, K Ravishankar, filed the complaint against unnamed Central Crime Branch officers who investigated the 2020 case in which Srikrishna and 10 others including a Congress leader’s son are accused.
The complaint has been registered in Bengaluru ‘s Cottonpet police station against unnamed police officers under Indian Penal Code sections related to destruction of documents, criminal conspiracy, cheating by impersonation and mischief.
According to the complaint, a digital forensic analysis report of devices seized from the international hacker’s associates has revealed that they were tampered with after the police seized the devices following their arrests in November 2020.
The CID has quoted a digital forensics report dated February 20, 2023, to state that two pen drives seized from the accused on November 9, 2020, had been manipulated in police custody, and that an Apple MacBook and a hard disk seized on November 17, 2020, were found to have been tampered with between November 18 and 20. A second MacBook seized on November 19, 2020, was tampered with between November 20 and 21. The CID alleges in its complaint that the devices were tampered with on the premises of the CCB office in Bengaluru between November 9 and December 12, 2020.
The CCB filed a chargesheet in February 2022 in the Bitcoin-for-drugs case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1985. The accused also included a police head constable.
The case eventually led to the cracking of several cybercrimes involving the then 26-year-old Srikrishna, including a Rs 11.5-crore heist from the Karnataka e-governance cell in July-August 2019.
The drug case emerged on November 4, 2020, when Sujay M, an engineer who was part of a group allegedly involved in procuring drugs through the internet, was arrested at the foreign post office in Chamarajpet in south Bengaluru, where he had gone to retrieve an international parcel of 500gm of hydro ganja.
Sujay’s arrest led the CCB to his associates Sunish Hegde, Hemanth Mudappa and Prasidh Shetty, who fled to Goa and were sheltered at a resort by Darshan Kumar Lamani, son of Rudrappa Lamani, Congress MLA from the Haveri region. The MLA’s son was among the 11 accused in the case registered at the Kempegowda Nagar police station.
Among the other accused, police head constable Prabhakar A J allegedly provided information to members of the gang on a police tracking team while they were on the run following the initial arrests. The other accused are Mohan Barki, Pankaj Kothari and Ashis Bheemsen.
Srikrishna is accused of transferring funds to his accountant Robin Khandelwal, who ran a Bitcoin trading service, to purchase drugs on the darknet. After his arrest, the hacker told the police he was involved in stealing from international sites including virtual crypto exchanges like the Bitfinex exchange. He was also found to have been involved in a 2019 hacking at the e-governance cell, where Rs 11.5 crore of earnest money deposits by bidders for tenders were stolen, and also in the hacking of several poker gaming sites.
Offspring of several politicians cutting across party lines in the states are known to have associated with Srikrishna. According to court records, he was often housed in five-star hotels by his affluent associates to carry out his hacking activities.
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While Srikrishna was named in a criminal case for the first time, in February 2018, as an associate of Mohammed Haris (son of the Bengaluru Congress MLA N A Haris and state Youth Congress president) for allegedly attacking a man at a pub in Bengaluru, his role as a hacker emerged only after his arrest in the November 2020 Bitcoin-for-drugs case.
The handling of the cases involving the hacker by the police had led to allegations of corruption by the Congress when the BJP was in power. The Congress has insinuated bribes were paid through cryptocurrency by the gang to top officials to get out of the cases.
Since the Congress returned to power in May 2023, a special investigation team has been constituted at the CID to inquire into the cases afresh. “There is information about the involvement of influential politicians of Karnataka in the drugs & Bitcoin scam. It is concerning that the investigating officers are trying to close the case to help those politicians,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote on social media in October 2021, in an apparent reference to the crimes Srikrishna and his associates are accused of.
