Karnataka Bitcoin scam: In destruction of evidence case, court rejects interim anticipatory bail plea of missing cop | Bangalore News
A special court in Bengaluru on Friday rejected a police officer’s plea seeking interim anticipatory bail in a case of alleged destruction of evidence linked to a 2020-21 hacking case in the city involving international hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki.
Former Bengaluru Crime Branch police officer K Sridhar Poojar sought interim anticipatory bail in the case filed by a criminal investigation department (CID) special investigation team (SIT) on August 9, 2023, after he was issued notices in the case.
The CID SIT which is probing a Bitcoin-linked corruption scam over alleged extortion of cryptocurrency funds from the hacker after his arrest in November 2020 had filed an FIR over destruction of evidence in 2023 against unnamed officers of the Bengaluru Crime Branch. The SIT has now issued notices to two former Crime Branch officers, Poojar and Prashant Babu.
“The interim bail application filed by the petitioner under sec.438(1) of Cr.P.C. is hereby rejected,” a special court said Friday.
Poojar, who is of the rank of a deputy superintendent, went missing after his anticipatory bail was rejected last month in another CID SIT case registered in January this year for alleged illegal confinement of the hacker Sriki in the 2020-21 period. He has approached the Karnataka High Court for anticipatory bail in that matter at present.
The second officer, Prashant Babu, who is of the rank of police inspector, was arrested on January 24 by the SIT in the illegal confinement case and was released a month later on bail.
The former Bengaluru Crime Branch officers are accused of manipulation of electronic devices seized from associates of Sriki.
Last year, a CID officer of the rank of a deputy superintendent of police, filed a complaint against unnamed previous investigating officers of the Central Crime Branch in Bengaluru who carried out investigations of the case of purchasing drugs using Bitcoins where Sriki and 10 associates, including the son of a Congress leader, are accused.
The complaint was registered in the Cottonpet police station limits in Bengaluru under Indian Penal Code sections for destruction of documents, criminal conspiracy, cheating by impersonation, and mischief against unnamed police officers.
According to the police complaint filed by a CID SIT officer, a digital forensic analysis report of devices seized from the associates of the hacker after their arrests in November 2020 has revealed tampering with the devices after they were seized as evidence in 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, at the time of the first batch of arrests 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 between November 18 and 20.
A second MacBook seized on November 19, 2020, was tampered between November 20 and 21. Electronic and computer devices were tampered with at the premises of the CCB office in Bengaluru between November 9 and December 12, 2020, the CID has alleged in its complaint against the CCB to the Bengaluru police.
The police handling of the cases involving the hacker under the previous BJP regime in Karnataka had resulted in allegations of corruption by the Opposition Congress. The Congress insinuated alleged payment of bribes through cryptocurrency by the hacker gang to top officials to get out of the cases.
When the Congress returned to power in May 2023, an SIT was constituted at the CID to probe the cases afresh.
