Three held in Bengaluru bitcoin-linked cyber fraud investigation

The Enforcement Directorate arrested alleged crypto hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki and two others in a money laundering case linked to Bitcoin theft. The probe also involves searches at Congress-linked individuals’ premises, stemming from a 2017 cyber hacking investigation in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: The Enforcement Directorate has arrested three persons, including an alleged crypto hacker named Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki, in a cryptocurrency-linked money laundering case, officials said on Saturday.

They said Sriki, Robin Khandelwal and Sunish Hegde were taken into custody on May 8. They were produced before a local Bengaluru court on Saturday, which sent them to 10 days of ED custody, officials said.

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The central agency conducted raids in this case on April 20, including at premises linked to the accused Mohammed Haris Nalapad and Omar Farook Nalapad, sons of Karnataka Congress MLA N A Haris, and Aqeeb Khan, grandson of veteran Congress leader and former Union minister K Rahman Khan, among others.

Mohammed Haris Nalapad, a former Karnataka Youth Congress President, later interacted with the press and denied any wrongdoing, asserting that the 21 hours of search by the ED in his and his brother’s house did not yield anything. He said his family had been in public life for a long time and that their conduct was upright.

The money laundering case stems from some Karnataka Police FIRs and chargesheets filed in a 2017 case of hacking of national and international websites, stealing of bitcoins and sale of these ‘stolen’ virtual digital assets (VDA) through crypto platforms by the alleged hacker Sriki and his associates. The Haris brothers have been questioned in this case by the Karnataka Police special investigation team (SIT).

The 59-year-old Nalapad Ahmed Haris, alias N A Haris, is a four-time Congress MLA, who got elected to the assembly in 2008 and since then has been representing the Shantinagar Assembly seat. Srikrishna Ramesh was arrested by the state police as part of this investigation. Congress leaders had alleged in 2021 that he hacked Bitcoins worth Rs 10,000 crore and demanded a probe into the possible involvement of the then ruling BJP in Karnataka.