BENGALURU: Skeletons continue to tumble out of the closet of hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki’s multicrore Bitcoin scam that has snowballed into a political controversy. On Saturday, RTI activist AR Ashok Kumar Adiga alleged that senior police officers, including Joint Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil and Police Commissioner Kamal Pant, ignored his “complaint against corruption in the drug case by police officials and influential politicians.” Ashok said that complete details of the complaint have been sent to the Prime Minister Office, Union Home Minister and Union Home Secretary.
After sharing the complaint copy dated April 22, 2021 along with images of WhatsApp chats claiming to be sent to Sandeep Patil and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central Crime Branch, BS Angadi, Ashok said that though he had flagged the scam as early as April, no action was taken.
Activist says top cop ingored his complaint on Bitcoin
Ashok said he had even informed the officers of about 12,900 Bitcoins cashed from Sriki. “Sriki was arrested in a drug case in December 2020. In January 2021, I received information that some top-level CCB officials had taken 9,600 Bitcoins from Sriki. I shared this information with an IPS officer on January 3 on WhatsApp. But nothing happened.
In April, they took 3,300 Bitcoins more,” he said. “I sent a WhatsApp message on April 20 to Kamal Pant, stating that I wanted to meet him to explain this scam, but there was no response.” In his complaint, he stated, “It was found that Sriki had hacked the official website of Bitcoin and illegally transferred thousands of Bitcoins to his wallet.
A case has been registered against him in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The National Police Corps of Amsterdam is investigating the case and is tracking the Bitcoins transferred by Sriki. I have collected a copy of all these documents and contacted the FBI.” He claimed that the FBI requested him to provide documents to Interpol in Bengaluru.
“The liaison officer of Interpol, Bengaluru is Umesh Kumar, ADGP, CID. As I don’t have faith in Indian agencies, I wrote to the Interpol in France.” In his complaint, he mentioned that after an initial inquiry, the office in France asked him to contact the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore. He stated that he contacted the Singapore office, which asked him to deliver the documents to NPC and FBI. In his complaint to Sandeep Patil, he said, “I have got 03 files, one from Amsterdam, 02 from the US.
The file contains screenshots of nearly 1,017 (whale alerts). The message was received by FBI every time a Bitcoin was cashed.” He claimed that senior police officials failed to act, despite knowing that 12,900 Bitcoins were cashed from Sriki when he was in their custody. The activist said that he has records of 17 people being involved in this “deal”. His note to police officers also mentioned that he was planning to send the documents to officers in the Union government, in case “your department or the others try to implicate me in false cases or harm me”.
He claimed that on April 26, he handed over a written complaint to Sandeep Patil’s office. On April 27, DCP Angadi called him to the CCB office and took all the details, assuring him that his senior Sandeep Patil would be informed. But there was no response. Ashok claimed he has more documents, but will not release them now.
He said he is approaching the media as he feels that his life is in danger and he has information about police officials and politicians involved in the scam. Police sources said they have not ignored the complaint. Repeated calls to police commissioner and joint commissioner of Police went unanswered.