Even as the BJP fire-fights in Karnataka to contain the Bitcoin scam that threatens to uproot leaders of the ruling party as well as some police officers, police have now said that it was necessary to open a Bitcoin account to investigate crypto currency and “neither any Bitcoins were transferred from the account of hacker Srikrishna, nor any Bitcoin was lost”.
The Cottonpet police station, where the complaint in the case was registered, said in a release: “During the process of identifying and seizure of bitcoins, accused Srikrishna showed a BTC wallet, which contained 31.8 BTC. Wallet password was changed in the presence of cyber experts, Government panchas, and entire procedure was recorded under mahazer and submitted to Court.”
Responding to rumours about the probe into the scam in which an alleged international hacker arrested by the police has claimed transfer of Bitcoins worth thousands of crores into the accounts of big political leaders in the state, police said the “entire investigation is being done in the most transparent manner and no officer has acted illegally”.
“It is very clear police has acted in a very transparent manner involving outside domain experts and appropriately recording all the proceedings, which were submitted to the Court. It is to firmly reiterate that at no stage, anything was done which could jeopardise fair investigation and process of law. Investigation was done by a team of professional officers under close supervision and in continuous consultation / presence of reputed and external experts, without any external influence or interference.”
It added: “The claim made on Whale Alert that 14,682 stolen Bifinex Bitcoins were transferred is completely unsubstantiated. And there is nothing to suggest that it had originated from Bangalore. The law enforcement system/investigating agencies work on certain procedures laid down by law of the land. They cannot act on unconfirmed, unknown social media handles/inputs. It is a matter of fact that even though arrest of the said accused attained wide media publicity, till date no foreign law enforcement agencies nor any foreign companies have approached the Bangalore Police about any hacking, as claimed by accused.”
The scam has raised the political temperatures in Karnataka. According to police, accused Srikrishna told them about his “business”, claiming he had hacked into two cryptocurrency exchanges and stolen 5,000 Bitcoins worth over Rs 2,000 crore. He had also allegedly revealed to the police that he had hacked several government websites and manipulated tenders worth hundreds of crores. He is also being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the alleged cyber scams.
According to unconfirmed reports, he was forced to transfer these Bitcoins into the accounts of some top political leaders from the ruling BJP. The alleged role of some police officers has also come under the scanner.
Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah has demanded answers from the Bommai government, saying a thorough probe should be ordered. “I have come to know that some top people in the government hold Bitcoins. How did they get them? I demand answers. The BJP should come clean about this huge scam,” the former CM said.
Read all the Latest India News here
Comments
0 comment