HC bins plea of hacker Sriki's brother to travel abroad

The High Court has rejected the petition filed by Sudarshan Ramesh, brother of hacker Srikrishna alias Sriki.

A mechanical engineer employed at Brunel and based out of Eindhoven in Netherlands, Sudarshan had prayed for quashing of Enforcement Directorate (ED) endorsement of January 13, 2022, restraining him from travelling.

Sudarshan claimed in the petition that he had appeared before the ED officials on three days - December 29 and 30, 2021 and on January 1, 2022.

He said no summons were issued against him after his last visit to the ED office on January 1.

Sudarshan had sought for quashing the endorsement dated January 13, 2022, whereby his passport was cancelled for travel and also to quash the lookout circular (LOC) issued against him.

In addition, he had prayed the court to issue a direction to the ED to permit him to travel and also direct an inquiry into the actions taken by the ED and direct officials responsible to compensate him.

The senior counsel appearing for him contended that there is no FIR registered against Sudarshan.

Because of a case registered against his brother, ED officials cannot restrict the petitioner from traveling to Netherlands where he works, he said.

It was contended that restricting travel would be violative of Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution.

Additional Solicitor General M B Naragund submitted that the presence of the petitioner is necessary to ascertain his role in money laundering and to ascertain all transactions leading to proceeds of crime.

It was submitted that the petitioner had received 50,000 pounds out of the crime proceeds from his brother and had transferred it to Hanish Patel, residing in the UK.

It was argued that a conversation between the petitioner and his father had revealed that certain Great Britain Pounds (GBP) were transferred to a Swiss account, details of which are yet to be known.

Justice S G Pandit noted that the apprehension of the ED that the petitioner may settle in Netherlands and he may not be available for further investigation has to be respected in view of the extract of e-mails reproduced in the statement of objections.

“It is for the petitioner to co-operate with the investigation being conducted by the third respondent (ED) and to convince the third respondent that he has no role to play in the money laundering case registered against his brother and request for withdrawal of LOC issued against him,” the court said.

The summons was in relation to a criminal case against Sudarshan’s brother Srikrishna under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as well as offences under IPC sections.

The allegation against Srikrishna is that he is involved in hacking crypto exchanges and poker websites in India as well as overseas from 2013, till date.