BENGALURU: Officers of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the multi-crore Bitcoin case and similar offences, have arrested a farmer from Punjab in connection with the 2019 case of hacking of the e-procurement portal of the Karnataka government.
The accused has been identified as Harwinder Singh of Kapurthala in Punjab. The SIT, led by CID Additional Director General of Police Manish Kharbikar, arrested Singh from Punjab on September 29. He is currently in judicial custody. “Harwinder Singh has been arrested for his involvement in laundering the proceeds of the crime,” Kharbikar told TNIE. He said two others -- Nitin Meshram of Nagpur and Darshit Patel of Gujarat -- were also arrested recently. The total number of persons arrested in the case has reached 21.
In December 2019, an official of the state government’s e-procurement cell lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police Station of the CID, stating that unknown persons had hacked the portal and initiated unauthorised fund transfers causing a loss of several crores of rupees. In November 2020, notorious hacker Sri Krishna alias Shriki, who was arrested in an NDPS case, emerged as the prime accused in the case.
Shriki is also the main accused in the Bitcoin case. “While Shriki had hacked the portal and transferred the funds, other accused had helped him to transfer the funds to various bank accounts charging a commission and laundering the proceeds of the crime. Though Shriki did not know Harvinder Singh directly, the latter was involved in the case after Sushil Chandra, another accused in the case, approached him,” an officer said.