BENGALURU: A police inspector, an accused in the Bitcoin scam case, has made serious allegations that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), probing the case, has been pressurised by the present Congress government to re-register the case as the ruling party wants political vendetta against the previous BJP government.
This is to help the main accused in the crime. The case was first registered in 2020, but investigating officers (IOs) in that case have now been made scapegoats, he alleged.
The inspector, Chandradhara SR (44), who works at the Armed Police Training School in Yelahanka and is absconding now, made these allegations in his anticipatory bail petition filed before the 51st Additional City Civil and Sessions Court.
Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) BN Jagadeesha countered, saying that when Chandradhara was investigating the case in 2020, 31 Bitcoins worth Rs 9 crore were shown to have been recovered, but they are untraceable now. Chandradhara had given an explanation that the accused had manipulated the Bitcoin core application and misled the investigation. But he failed to investigate further as to how, why and when the accused tampered with the core application, the SPP argued.
Jagadeesha contended that the main accused, Srikrishna Ramesh alias Shriki, who had been illegally detained by Chandradhara, was taken to the office of GCID Technologies. There, Sriki logged into the Amazon Web Services account and transferred 31 Bitcoins. Later a mahazar report was prepared on January 8, 2021. Again on January 22, 2021, another mahazar was drawn, stating that the transfer of 31 Bitcoins was a false transaction, and no Bitcoins were transferred. The mahazar was unauthorisedly prepared at the GCID office, but was shown to have been done at the Cyber Crime Police Station, Adugodi, he argued.
Chandradhara produced Shriki before the court through video-conferencing from the GCID office, but claimed that it was being done at the CCB office. Another accused Robin Khandelwala, when in police custody from January 6, 2021 till February 19, 2021, was taken to the GCID office. He was made to transfer Rs 99,000 from his Paytm account and purchase Bitcoins from Wazir Exchange. Again on January 16, 2021, Rs 2,53,160 from Robin’s Paytm account was transferred illegally and Bitcoins were purchased from Wazir Exchange. This clearly shows that Chandradhara is also part of a criminal conspiracy, the SPP said.
Judge Yashawanth Kumar noted that Chandradhara, who had the duty to investigate the case and to bring the culprits to book, had used his investigating power for illegal acts such as illegal detention of the accused, hacking crypto wallets, websites and gaming apps, etc., to make illegal gains.
The allegations against Chandradhara, who is absconding, are more serious. He is claiming that he is cooperating with the investigation, but the SPP stated that the voluntary statement given by him earlier is false and it does not corroborate with the investigation. The custodial interrogation of the petitioner is required, the judge said, rejecting the police officer’s anticipatory bail application.