Hacker Sriki was drugged in police custody, claims Congress

The Karnataka Congress on Friday released documents to claim lapses in the investigation of the bitcoin scam, with former IT minister Priyank Kharge flashing a court paper that suggests hacker Srikrishna aka Sriki was drugged in police custody.

Laying out a chronology of events, Kharge called it “probably the first and biggest cryptocurrency scam in India” and demanded a probe under a sitting Supreme Court judge.

“On January 11, 2021, Sriki’s father Gopal Ramesh filed an application in court claiming that his son had been administered mind-altering drugs by the police in their custody, especially Alprazolam. When the magistrate asks him, Sriki says yes. How can this happen in police custody,” Kharge asks.

According to Kharge, the magistrate sought a test of Sriki’s blood and urine samples. “The test is never done. In fact, the document states that the patient (Sriki) needs a stomach wash to rule out poisoning. Why? Isn’t this destruction of evidence?” Kharge said.

The Congress leader charged that new cases were slapped on Sriki each time his police custody was ending. “The hacker was first held on November 14, 2020. He surrendered along with one Robin Khandelwal. It goes unreported for three days. He’s shown to be arrested on November 17 in crime number 91/2020 and sent to 14-day custody. This crime deals with the e-procurement cell and the complainant is the investigating officer Sridhar Pujar,” Kharge said.

“Again, on December 2, in crime number 153/2020, he’s remanded to 12-day custody. This case deals with Sriki getting hydro-ganja through bitcoins from overseas. Then, under crime number 287/2020, he’s taken into additional 14-day custody for hacking into gaming sites and making money illegally,” Kharge said.

Also read: Siddaramaiah questions PM Modi on bitcoin scam

“On December 23, he goes into 14-day custody again in crime number 45/2020. This is where bitcoins come in and the case talks about transfer, exchange of bitcoins and converting them to cash through hawala,” he pointed out.

“What we need to observe is that just when his custody is coming to an end, a new case is filed. Cases aren’t filed at once. Officials should explain why,” Kharge said.

Further, the former minister picked holes in three panchnamas done by the police. “The first panchnama in crime number 45 deals with recovery of 31 bitcoins worth Rs 9 crore. They had a junior lineman and a powerman as witnesses,” he said.

“In the second panchnama on January 18, they had commercial tax officers as witnesses for the recovery of 0.8 bitcoins. Police create their own wallet to deposit these bitcoins in their own walled,” he said.

In the third panchnama dated January 27, Kharge said people from Unicoin and other cyber experts were called. “This was to transfer 31.8 bitcoins to the police wallet from Sriki’s wallet. When they opened the wallet, it had 186 bitcoins. Still, the transfer was initiated. On verifying, they find that the transaction ID never existed,” Kharge said, asking where the 186 bitcoins are.

Further, Kharge alleged that the police delayed in roping in central agencies. “On February 15, the ED wrote to the CCB asking for details on this case. There was a response 20 days later. Why this delay,” he asked.

“We have no faith that a dispassionate and transparent probe will happen under this government. So, we demand that a sitting Supreme Court judge should probe this,” he said.

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