Bengaluru: Karnataka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) recently arrested a tech nerd with exceptional knowledge of cryptocurrencies and an opulent lifestyle. However, a court has released him on bail.
On Tuesday, the CID announced the arrest of Shubhang Jain, 26, a Haryana native who studied BTech at a well-known engineering college in Tamil Nadu.
Jain allegedly stole cryptocurrency worth crores while working as a software developer at Cipher Technologies Pvt Ltd, headquartered in Bengaluru's Rajajinagar, between May 2021 and April 2022.
He returned some of the stolen cryptocurrencies after a complaint was filed.
According to the CID, Jain contacted the firm on a Telegram group and attended an interview to land the job.
His job involved dealing with market analytics and finance, so he had access to private crypto wallets owned by the company, according to multiple CID sources.
The cryptocurrencies he stole included Bitcoin, Binance and Tether, the sources added.
Jain was also very good at operating under the radar, as he evaded arrest by leaving little to no trace, the CID sources explained.
Cipher Technologies discovered the cryptocurrency theft during a scrutiny of the accounts and lodged a complaint at the Subramanya Nagar police station in April 2022.
Given the gravity of the complaint, the case was transferred to the CID.
The CID examined the company's transactions and weeded out official ones to identify cryptocurrencies sent to crypto wallets belonging to Jain, his parents and close associates, an officer close to the investigation said.
Using the Merkle and Arkham tools that help establish cryptocurrency transactions, the CID discovered that cryptocurrencies worth crores were siphoned off. It also traced him first to Gujarat and then to Navi Mumbai.
But catching hold of Jain was not so easy.
"He never stayed in one place nor had a fixed phone number. He always stayed in luxury hotels and led an opulent lifestyle," the officer told DH. "It was nearly impossible to trace him."
However, the CID found a breakthrough when police informants, after spending hours monitoring crypto exchanges, discovered a phone number purportedly used by Jain. The number was active in Navi Mumbai.
"We weren't sure if it was his number but we took our chance and went to Navi Mumbai on July 29. We skimmed through the call log and found most calls were made to house brokers," the officer said.
After finding no luck with brokers, CID sleuths went looking for Jain at luxury hotels. Meanwhile, Jain switched on his phone, helping the CID pick him up from a Navi Mumbai hotel during an overnight operation led by police inspector Shivaprasad on July 30.