The case dates again to 2019, when a grievance was lodged that the e-procurement portal had been hacked and unauthorised transactions initiated.
| Picture Credit score: reuters
The Particular Investigation Staff (SIT) of the CID probing the bitcoin case, led by ADGP Manish Kharbikar, on Saturday, carried out a collection of raids on the homes of Central Crime Department (CCB) officials and two individuals who allegedly fabricated the seized paperwork and accessed the e-wallets of the prime accused Sriki for private achieve.
A crew of officials raided 9 locations belonging to four police officials and two individuals, together with DySP Sridhar Pojar, Inspectors Prashanth Babu, Chandradhar and Lakshikath, in totally different areas and recovered four laptops, eight cellphones, two NAS (community hooked up storage) gadgets, 10 onerous drives, 5 pen drives, a reminiscence card and different related paperwork.
Particulars of hacking
The SIT officials had sought the main points of the hacking and the laptops the accused officials seized from Sriki for investigations. Nonetheless, the accused allegedly refused to cooperate with the investigations and failed handy over the seized digital devices, following which the SIT officials carried out the raid, sources mentioned.
Investigations by the SIT officials revealed that the accused officials had taken Sriki into custody for investigations however taken him into the offices of personal cyber safety specialists for questioning and to get entry to his account to get better the bitcoins, which is unlawful. The SIT officials additionally raided the offices of the cyber safety specialists, recognized as Santosh and Gagan Jain, who owned companies that take care of cyber forensics and darknet investigation and recovered a substantial quantity of materials concerning the case.
Two extra arrested
In the meantime, the SIT, who have been additionally probing the e-procurement web site hacking case, arrested two extra individuals allegedly concerned in laundering the proceeds of the cash stolen after hacking into the state authorities e portal in 2019.
With the arrest of Nitiin Meshram and Darshith Patel, the full quantity of arrests has reached 21, mentioned a senior police officer. The crew based mostly on their info is conducting search operations in a number of locations in Koramangala and Bommanahalli.
On Friday, the SIT crew arrested a farmer, Harwinder Singh of Kapurthala in Punjab, for related expenses of cash laundering from the proceeds of the e-procurement portal of the Karnataka authorities.
4-year-old case
The case dates again to December 2019, when an official of the State authorities’s e-procurement cell lodged a grievance with the Cybercrime Police Station of the CID stating that unknown individuals had hacked the portal and initiated unauthorised fund transfers, inflicting a loss of a number of crores of rupees. Based mostly on the grievance, the police arrested infamous hacker Sri Krishna alias Sriki, who was earlier arrested in an NDPS case. “Whereas Sriki had hacked the portal and transferred the funds, the opposite accused had helped him to switch the funds to numerous financial institution accounts, charging a fee and laundering the proceeds of the crime,” mentioned a police officer.
