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Bitcoin case: Siddaramaiah asks Karnataka government to provide protection to Sriki
The statements come even as the scandal continues to take twists and turns ever since it was made public by Siddaramaiah earlier this month. The ruling BJP government under Bommai has tried to put the blame back on the Congress.
Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Monday asked the Basavaraj Bommai-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to provide protection to Srikrishna or Sriki, the person at the heart of the raging Bitcoin scandal, stating that the latter’s life could be in danger.
“I urge @CMofKarnataka to ensure adequate protection to #Bitcoin scam kingpin Sri Krishna alias Sriki. Many influential people are said to be involved in the scam & hence protecting him becomes necessary,” Siddaramaiah said in a series of posts on Twitter.
He added that it has become very important to keep Sriki safe to unravel the truth about the scandal which reportedly runs into several thousand crores.
“Bitcoin scam is an organised ‘White collar crime’. It is said that all the passwords of the Bitcoin accounts related to the scam are just in the memory of Sriki. It is not written anywhere. His life will be under risk for these known & several unknown reasons,” Siddaramaiah posted.
The statements come even as the scandal continues to take twists and turns ever since it was made public by Siddaramaiah earlier this month. The ruling BJP government under Bommai has tried to put the blame back on the Congress.
Bommai has defended the government’s actions in trying to probe the scandal.
Bommai on Monday said that the Congress is trying to “keep the non-issue alive”.
“I have repeatedly said, if they have any documentary evidence let them give it to ED or state police. We will investigate it seriously.”
R Ashoka, Karnataka’s revenue minister, on Monday said that the Congress is “intellectually bankrupt”.
“During the previous elections, Congress tried to create a controversy related to (the) Rafale scam only to realise that the grand old party leaders were involved in it. Now, they are trying to rake up the Bitcoin issue. I wonder why Congress has turned out to be an expert in fake news. Every Congress leader seems to be an expert in lying without giving facts. The Congress party leaders have been making statements on releasing the documents related to Bitcoin and I wonder why they are not producing anything so far,” he said.
The minister sought to know more details from the Congress who he said were claiming that the scandal had amounted to losses to several people.
“I want to question the Congress party to give us details related to Bitcoin as to which company has lost money due to this. Where has the money been transferred? Let them provide proof. As Mr Basavaraj Bommai was weeding out the drug mafia, Congress party leaders are scared that their names will come out and hence they are trying to create the fake Bitcoin scandal. The main accused Sikri is a drug addict and a drug peddler. I question the Congress party as to why there was no proper investigation when it was in power. Now, the Congress party is worried that their leaders’ nexus will come out. I feel that the Congress is also worried over the Nalapad (referring to Congress legislator NA Harris’s son, Mohammed Nalapad) in the whole issue,” he said.
