Police filed ‘incomplete charge sheet’ in bitcoin scandal: Congress

HT, which has accessed the charge sheet and documents, had reported that 31 bitcoins seized allegedly from the hacker were missing from official records and there was a delay in reporting the hacker involvement in other crimes to the central agencies.

The Congress on Friday accused Bengaluru police of filing an “incomplete charge sheet” against hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki in the alleged bitcoin scandal.

In a series of allegations, citing the charge sheet, the Congress said crucial evidence such as logs of hackers chats with his partners, recovered bitcoins and details of his bank transactions were missing from the charge sheet

In a series of allegations, citing the charge sheet, the Congress said crucial evidence such as logs of hackers chats with his partners, recovered bitcoins and details of his bank transactions were missing from the charge sheet.

HT, which has accessed the charge sheet and documents, had reported that 31 bitcoins seized allegedly from the hacker were missing from official records and there was a delay in reporting the hacker involvement in other crimes to the central agencies.

During the interrogation, Srikrishna confessed to hacking into a cryptocurrency exchange -- Bitfinex, police claimed in the charge sheet. On August 2, 2016, hackers had breached the security systems of the exchange and stole around 120,000 bitcoins, which was about $72 million at the time. This case has caught the attention of the international enforcement agencies and India was flagged about the development as well.

The hacker in question, Srikrishna, was arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of police on November 17, 2020, in a drug peddling case. He had allegedly bought drugs from international dealers using bitcoins on the dark web. In the interrogation that followed, CCB found that the software engineer was also involved in a series of online crimes. He confessed to hacking and stealing from three Bitcoin exchanges, 14 company websites, including 10 poker websites, and a government portal.

An examination of the charge sheet also pointed out that the voluntary statement filed by Bengaluru police in the charge sheet didn’t have relevant details, including the date on which the statement was recorded. Even though the hacker had claimed he was involved in crimes involving the hacking of certain international Bitcoin exchanges, police investigation was limited to the hacking of certain poker websites in the country.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Congress said even though police records show that the hacker was arrested on November 17, he had surrendered before police on November 14. The Congress claimed he was in illegal custody for three days before his arrest was registered.

The Congress also alleged that the hacker was illegally drugged by police while he was in custody. “On January 11, 2021, when Srikrishna is produced in a court, his father Gopal Ramesh filed an application under Sec 190(1)(c) accuses police and joint commissioner to having illegally administering Alprazolam (am anxiety drug) on Srikrishna. Srikrishna agreed that he has had Alprozolam during police custody in front of the magistrate,” Congress said.

HT accessed the petition filed by the Srikrishna’s father, which read: “…application was filed by the petitioner being the father of the accused that he has credible and reliable information that the respondents (police) at the behest and unlawful orders have been administering the Petitioner’s son Srikrishna with excessive mind-altering drugs specifically Alprazolam which is a prohibited drug and therefore, sought cognizance be taken against all officials who have committed various offences under the NDPS Act as also under the IPC.”

The opposition went to allege even though the magistrate ordered a scientific examination of the hacker’s blood and urine samples, police conducted a stomach wash done on him, defying the order. The opposition also produced a document from Victoria Medical College that read that stomach cleaning performed “to rule out poisoning”.

The Congress also accused Bengaluru police of misappropriation in handling the bitcoins allegedly seized during the investigation. Quoting a press note released by Bengaluru police on January 12, the Congress said 31 bitcoins worth ₹9 crore were seized by police during the probe.

According to the statement, police had accessed the bitcoin wallet of Srikrishna and changed the password of the wallet. As per police records, there were 31 bitcoins in the wallet at the time of the “panchanama”. “Where are the 31.8 bitcoins as shown in the screenshot of Panchanama of Crime No 45/2020? Since it is not withdrawn to the police wallet, who has them now? asked the Congress.

Alleging there was an intentional delay in informing the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation and Interpol, the Congress alleged that police waited for more than three months to inform central agencies despite having a voluntary statement from Srikrishna claiming he has than 5,000 cryptocurrencies with him. “A statutory govt orders states that all cases related to economic offences falling outside the jurisdiction of the state should be informed to higher authorities,” said the party.

Further pointing out the loopholes in the charge sheet filed by Bengaluru police, the Congress alleged that the charge sheet filed by police was intentionally incomplete. “None of the Skype chats, Facebook chats, logs are mentioned in the charge sheet. Despite having more than 100 days of police custody, police have not recovered any of the hacked bitcoins.”

It went on to add the hacker confession in the statement that he had transferred 80,000 euros was neither investigated, nor reported to Enforcement Directorate. “Facebook chats on drug trafficking were neither investigated nor reported to Narcotics Control Bureau. The charge sheet doesn’t have any mention of the 5,000 bitcoins (worth 2,500 crore as of today), which the hacker claims to have hacked. There is no tracking done on the amount transferred to bank accounts from hacking E-Procurement Website of Karnataka government,” the Congress alleged.

Senior officers of Bengaluru police rebutted claims of the Congress. Presenting their versions, two senior police officers said several claims made by the hacker in his voluntary statement couldn’t be verified during the investigation, which is being highlighted by the opposition.

A senior Bengaluru police officer, who didn’t want to be named, said although Srikrishna had told police about his involvement, it could not be corroborated. “Yes, in his voluntary statement (copy of which is available with HT), Sriki has claimed a lot of things including being part of the Bitfinex hacking and transferring funds etc. We were not able to verify this information, so it was not communicated to authorities during early stages of investigation. We were trying to get more evidence.”

The officer said police could only find evidence of his involvement in the hacking of some poker companies and the government portal.

Another senior officer said he had done an evidence collection in presence of two experts, who had changed login details of an account, where Srikrishna showed 31 bitcoins. “Several days later, we realised the seized account didn’t belong to Sriki. We have submitted all these details before the court. I don’t understand why there is a controversy over this,” said the officer.