Bitcoins worth Rs 9 cr seized from hacker arrested in drugs case

Thirty-one Bitcoins worth a whopping Rs 9 crore have been seized from a 25-year-old hacker arrested last year for breaking into government websites and gaming portals.

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) believes Srikrishna alias Sriki, a resident of Jayanagar, had hacked three Bitcoin exchanges, three Malware exploits, 10 poker portals, four other websites and Yearn (YFI) and Ethereum accounts. It had initially arrested him in a case of importing drugs through the Darknet.

Investigators found that Srikrishna gave the stolen Bitcoins to Robin Khandelwal and other cryptocurrency traders who paid him mostly through the bank accounts of his friends. The traders sometimes paid him through Hawala.

Srikrishna and his associates Suneesh Hegde, Praseed Shetty, Sujay and Hemanth Muddappa also used the Bitcoins to import drugs from abroad, the CCB said.

According to the CCB, Srikrishna used specific tools and private keys to hack the websites of Bitcoins accounts. In 2019, he allegedly hacked the e-procurement website of the Karnataka government and transferred crores of rupees to a friend's account.

Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), said they would take the help of Interpol to notify the companies whose websites Srikrishna had hacked.

The CCB found that Srikrishna had an opulent lifestyle and often stayed in star hotels. It's carrying further investigations to recover other valuables and properties allegedly stolen by him.