BENGALURU: Amidst allegations by the Opposition parties regarding the Bitcoin scam, the Bengaluru City Police issued a clarification on a social media platform, and shared a document, attributing the mistake of mentioning the wrong crime number in a communication with Interpol to ‘typographical error’. Perhaps, this is the first time that the police have shared the document related to an investigation in public domain.
Congress MLA Priyank Kharge, who is making serious allegations against the BJP government in connection with the bitcoin scam, questioned what the government was hiding, citing the letter written by the Police Commissioner to the liaison officer of Interpol.
“Press release from Office of Police Commissioner on 13/11/21 states they have written to Interpol on 28/4/21 seeking their help for Crime No. 03/2020 in #Bitcoin case. Do they need help for a case of cheating of 23,000? Why is there no gist of complaint? What is Govt hiding?” Kharge tweeted, posting the images of the FIR and the letter by the Commissioner.
A few hours later, the police posted a thread of tweets, clarifying that the FIR number was wrongly mentioned in the forwarding letter due to a typographical error. “It is to reiterate that letter was written to Interpol liaison officer, CID on Apr 28, 2021, regarding the hacking claims made by Srikrishna @ Sriki.
The same being a forwarding letter was sent along with the detailed letter of the I.O., which contained all the required details. I.O. is the appropriate authority to seek information related to a case. Cr. No. 03/2020 in the forwarding letter is a typographical error, though the attached letter from the I.O and letter to Interpol, contained relevant crime numbers,” the official handle of the BCP tweeted along with the image of the letter written by the Police Inspector of the Cyber Crime Police Station, who is the Investigation Officer, to the Police Commissioner on April 28, 2021.
The letter mentions the details of the four cases registered against Sri Krishna alias Sriki for hacking in Cottonpet, Cyber Crime, Kempegowda Nagar, and Ashoknagar police stations. The letter states that the accused confessed to other crimes, including hacking and ransomware attacks on various websites and bitcoin exchanges. It also mentions the names of 12 websites and bitcoin exchanges that were allegedly hacked by Sriki.
Data theft of casino, poker site
The actual crime number of the wrongly mentioned number is 45/2020, which is related to data theft allegedly committed by Sriki. Aravind Balakrishna, the Director of Pacific Gaming Pvt Ltd, had lodged the complaint on December 23, stating that the company ran two gaming websites (Casino143 and Pokersaint) and the business of both the sites was gradually declining. “I came to know through TV news that the CCB has arrested hacker Sri Krishna and it was found that he is the one who stole data from our websites and caused the loss,” Balakrishna alleged.
Sriki might be killed in encounter, fears Congress spokesperson
Bengaluru: A day after the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah demanded police protection for hacker Sri Krishna alias Sriki, a KPCC spokesperson has expressed concern that Sriki may be killed in a police encounter. Sanket Yenagi, an advocate and Congress spokesperson, tweeted on Tuesday that Sriki may be killed in an encounter like gangster Vikas Dubey in Uttar Pradesh. “The manner @BJP4UttarPrdesh government has killed accused Vikas Dubey in a police encounter to cover up its role in crimes in Uttar Pradesh, there is a likelihood of @BJP4Karnataka government killing Srikrishna @ Sriki, the prime accused in #Bitcoin_Scandal, in police encounter,” he tweeted. On Monday, Siddaramaiah had urged CM Basavaraj Bommai to ensure adequate protection to Sriki as “many influential people are said to be involved in the scam and hence protecting him becomes necessary”.