Bengaluru: In a fresh twist to the infamous Bitcoin case, Karnataka police's Special Investigation Department (SIT) arrested serial hacker Srikrishna alias Sriki in the early hours of Tuesday.
The 29-year-old known for his exceptional hacking skills was picked up from a five-star hotel near Mehkri Circle in northern Bengaluru around 1.30 am. He had checked into the hotel on April 30 and ran up a Rs 6.5-lakh bill for his weeklong stay, a well-placed source in the SIT told DH. He is suspected to have used stolen Bitcoins to pay the hefty bills.
In the latest instance, Srikrishna is accused of hacking into the website of the Tumakuru-based Unocoin Cryptocurrency Exchange seven years ago and siphoning off cryptocurrency worth over Rs 1 crore from it.
Confirming the development, Manish Kharbikar, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), said the arrest was made after leads corroborated Srikrishna's involvement in the cryptocurrency theft. "Further investigations will be carried out,” he told DH.
An SIT press release said: “After running (a) technical analysis of the laptop confiscated from Srikirishna alias Sriki, the SIT has been successful in cracking the case by finding crypto addresses hidden by him with the intention of hiding them from the SIT.
"According to the digital evidence we have, prima facie, it appears that Sriki has hacked the Unocoin database and stolen bitcoins,” it noted.
In 2017, Harish B V, Director of Unocoin Technologies Pvt Ltd, filed a complaint at Tumakuru's New Extension police station, alleging the theft of cryptocurrencies by unknown hackers.
"On February 23, 2017, around 2.30 pm, some unknown people hacked our company’s database and transferred 60.6 Bitcoin (BTC) to two different servers, one BTC and 59.6 BTC, respectively," Harish wrote in his complaint.
At the time, one Bitcoin was worth Rs 1,67,481. So the total sum lost was Rs 1.1 crore. Currently, one Bitcoin is valued at Rs 53 lakh.
In 2013, the case was transferred to the SIT after Congress came back to power in Karnataka and ordered a sweeping probe into allegations related to the Bitcoin case.
Sriki declined gunman
Two weeks ago, Srikrishna submitted a written request to the Bengaluru police, saying he no longer needed the gunman assigned to guard him. The gunman was taken off accordingly, an SIT source said.
Police had provided Srikrishna with a gunman after he submitted a request, saying there was a threat to his life.
What's the Bitcoin case?
Srikrishna was first arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) on November 17, 2020, for ordering hydro ganja on the Darkweb with Bitcoins that he earned by hacking into the state government’s e-governance and other websites. He was accused of diverting Rs. 11.5 crore.
A case was registered at Bengaluru's KG Nagar police station under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and various sections of the IPC. The scandal is known as the Bitcoin case. Police officers involved in the investigations allegedly used Srikrishna to siphon off Bitcoins.
Srikrishna was later released on bail and lived in luxury hotels.
"Despite hailing from a middle-class family and not having a known source of income, he leads a lavish life in five-star hotels," the SIT source quoted earlier said.
Absconding ACP to appear before court
The High Court of Karnataka has ordered Sridhar K Pujar, an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) in the Internal Security Division, to appear before it on Wednesday in connection with the Bitcoin case.
Pujar, currently absconding, applied for bail but the court rejected his application. He is accused of destroying evidence in the Bitcoin case when he was an inspector in the Central Crime Branch (CCB).