Sriki case: Hawala network channeled stolen proceeds

An anti-corruption crusader, a businessman with plans to start a snacks business and an unsuccessful entrepreneur who had failed in multiple business ventures were part of the elaborate hawala network used to divert money following the hack of the e-procurement portal in 2019.

The network had access to several non-KYC (Know Your Customer) accounts through which the money was transferred to banks in North India. Hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki was in touch with many persons in this hawala network, according to statements of various accused in the charge sheet.

Among the prime accused in the case is Vinith Kumar, proprietor of Nimmi Enterprises, which received Rs 1.05 crore after Sriki hacked the portal. A former athlete with 11 gold medals at the Uttar Pradesh state-level event, Vinith had started the firm in 2018, which marketed various products and also manufactured snacks.

Also Read | 'Outdated' infra made it easy to hack govt portal: Sriki

Vinith, in his statement to CID Cyber Crime Police, claimed that the money stolen from the e-procurement portal was transferred to him on July 1, 2019, as he had approached one ‘DSA (direct selling agent, a person who works as a referral agent for a bank) Finance’ for a loan. Subsequently, the accused transferred the money debited on his account to several other accounts in different banks between July 2-4.

Another accused, Krishna Pal, was a co-founder of ‘Corruption Free India’ and claimed to have organised Anna Hazare’s rally at Bulandshahr in 2018. Like Vinith - who was his friend - Pal claimed that he too fell into dire financial straits around 2019 and started looking for an ‘FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) loan’ along with donations for his organisation. One of the accounts to which Vinith transferred portions of the Rs 1.05 crore was Krishna’s.

Also Read | Sriki case: Don't scuttle probe, CID told CCB

Sushil Chandra ran a tutorial, before entering the scrap business and starting his own company in 2013. His business failed in 2018 and was looking for direct payment gateways to bypass authorities and make various payments. Soon, he came in contact with Harwinder Singh who had “much non-KYC money receiving accounts”.

Sushil was in touch with Sriki on Wickr - which offers an end to end encrypted messaging service. In June 2019, Sriki, who went by the username ‘dicerhash2’, asked Sushil for an account to transfer “huge amounts of Non-KYC funds”. Sushil was offered a 10% commission for arranging the accounts.

Watch the latest DH Videos here: