BENGALURU : Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sleuths have invoked the stringent Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA) against 29-year-old Sriki alias Sri Krishna Ramesh, the main accused in the Bitcoin scam, and his associate Robin Khandelwal.
Sriki was arrested in the early hours of May 7 from a luxury hotel on Ballari Road in connection with a case registered against him by the Tumakuru New Extension police station in 2017.
The case was transferred to SIT on July 18, 2023. The KCOCA against Sriki and Khandelwal is related to this case. Sriki, a resident of Jayanagar, was allegedly evading SIT enquiries and had also failed to respond to its notices.
The complaint against Sriki was filed by BV Harish, Director of Unocoin Technologies, in Tumakuru, and it was registered on March 26, 2017. Sriki was accused of hacking into the company’s server and stealing 60.6 Bitcoins worth Rs 1.14 crore. The cost of each Bitcoin was said to be around Rs 1.67 lakh then. The SIT subjected Sriki’s laptop to scientific analysis and cracked the case.
The SIT, formed by the state government for a comprehensive investigation into the scam, is probing eight cases registered in Cottonpet, KG Nagar, Ashoknagar and other cyber crime police stations.