BENGALURU: Notorious hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki, whose crime has sparked a raging political controversy in the State, “does not have any bank account in India or overseas nor have the law enforcement agencies, which are investigating him found any bitcoins with him,” informed sources told TNIE.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of City police, which had arrested him in November last year on drug charges, has taken the help of technical and digital experts from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Department of e-governance to track the bitcoins, but “no bitcoins have been found in his possession so far. This could also be because the bitcoin exchanges that were questioned/probed in the case didn’t maintain Know Your Customer (KYC) norms,” the source said.
Agencies find no bitcoins on Sriki yet, say sources
“Without KYC it is impossible to track the ownership or trading in cryptocurrency. The matter continues to be under investigation,” the sources added. Sriki had allegedly hacked the Centre for e governance portal of the State government and siphoned off Rs 10.5 crore, which he had diverted to various bank accounts in India and overseas.
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) had booked him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and in August this year had provisionally attached Rs 1.44 crore that he had allegedly diverted to bank accounts of an NGO - Uday Grama Vikash Sanstha in Nagpur - and proprietorship, Nimmi Enterprises in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh respectively.
“Besides this amount, no trail of money has been found yet,” said sources. The ED through “informal” channels also wrote to some countries, where Sriki had claimed to have diverted funds. The countries wrote back stating no bank accounts under his name have been found. The CCB had also written to the Interpol through the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to raise an alert following Sriki’s claims that he had hacked into some overseas websites and accounts of some important people including in India.
“Those claims are yet to be verified,” said the sources. After his arrest last year, Sriki had reportedly told the CCB that he was a hacker and has been hacking websites and bitcoin portals since 2014. “In 2014, the face value of bitcoins was much lower than what it is now and the anti-hacking/ safety mechanisms were not that stringent.
He said that he had encashed some bitcoins and spent them living an opulent life in five-star hotels. He is also heavily into drugs and has reportedly bought drugs with the ill-gotten money on the darknet. There is a high element of anonymity in darknet. It is this anonymity that he has encashed upon,” added the sources. Sriki is currently on bail. CCB, ED and the CID are investigating him.