Case of fence eating crop, material against cops in Bitcoin scam: Court

BENGALURU: Noting it to be a case of the fence eating the crop, the LI Additional City Civil and Sessions Court observed that police inspector Prashanth Babu DM, who was an investigation officer, used his powers to conduct illegal deeds, like illegal detention of the accused persons (hacker Shriki and Robin Khandelwal) and hacking crypto wallets, websites, gaming apps, etc, to make an illegal gain.

“… There are prima facie materials regarding the illegal detention of the accused persons in the earlier case and the act of hacking by using them with the help of Accused No. 1 (Shriki). The petitioner being a police officer and IO, the act is all the more serious,” Judge Yashawanth Kumar said on Friday, while granting bail to Prashanth Babu, who was in judicial custody from January 25, 2024.

Special Public Prosecutor BN Jagadeesh argued that there is no bar for registering an FIR without sanction. Despite several requests, the hard disc and laptop used to commit the offence have not been made available to the investigating officer. It is a case of financial fraud. The investigation is not completed. If bail is granted, it will cause serious hindrance to the investigation, he argued. Babu pleaded through his advocate that he is cooperating with the investigation and he will undertake not to tamper with prosecution witnesses and evidence. He appealed to the court to grant him bail, saying he suffers from health issues and requires frequent medication. Bail was granted with conditions.

Refuting allegations against him, KA Santhosh Kumar, CEO of GCID Technologies, contended that he has been rendering his service to the state and assisted in more than 540 criminal cases. He is a man of honesty and integrity, otherwise, he would have not been engaged by the Karnataka state police in so many cases as an expert, his advocate claimed.

The judge noted that it appears that there are prima facie materials regarding hacking and transferring of Bitcoins, changing of passwords etc., with the help of this petitioner. However, bail was granted with conditions.

Objecting to anticipatory bail to Sridhar K Pujar, DSP, Internal Security Division, SPP BN Jagadeesh argued that Pujar joined hands with other accused and attempted to hack various currency wallets, payment gateways and stock exchange websites. Pujar allowed Santhosh Kumar to take control of the crypto wallet, email ID and bank accounts of Robin Kandelwal and changed the password. He manipulated the evidence and hence custodial interrogation is required, he argued.

Rejecting the bail plea, the judge said the petitioner cannot avoid custodial interrogation.