The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) recorded the statement of a murder convict in Hindalga prison in Belagavi on July 9 in connection with the bitcoin scam.
The convict, Nagendra, had written to the SIT chief offering to give statement about the scam as he was present during the occurrence of a crime in Parappana Agrahara jail in Bengaluru.
Nagendra had written to the SIT chief alleging that when he was in Parappana Agrahara jail in Bengaluru, the police and prison officials had smuggled a laptop inside to hacker Srikrishna Ramesh aka Sriki to enable him to transfer bitcoins.
In the letter, he alleged that he was warned not to speak about the transfer of bitcoins, allegedly by a Director General of Police (DGP).
Nagendra alleged that on January 16, 2021, a laptop was smuggled to Sriki to transfer bitcoins worth ₹20 crore to the digital wallet of a prison inmate, who is the son of popular jewellery shop owner and a friend of Sriki.
According to sources, Nagendra claims to know how exactly the transaction took place inside the jail, and which prison official was responsible for the transaction.
The Bitcoin scam involving Sriki and his associates has been at the centre of a political controversy in Karnataka, with the Congress alleging that top leaders of the BJP, in power at the time of the hacker’s arrest, in collusion with police officials, had received kickbacks in cryptocurrency. Congress government has formed an SIT to probe the alleged scam.
in a recent development, the High Court of Karnataka declared as “illegal” the action of invoking the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA), 2000, against the hacker and prime accused Sriki in the first case registered in 2017.
Published - July 10, 2024 10:48 am IST
