Karnataka court summons hacker, Congress leader's son in 2017 Bitcoin theft
A magistrate's court in Karnataka's Tumakuru region has directed international hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki and five associates, including Youth Congress leader Mohammed Haris Nalapad, to appear before it on June 24. The court took cognisance of a police chargesheet filed in connection with the 2017 theft of 60.6 Bitcoin, valued at Rs 1.14 crore at the time, from the cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin.
The chargesheet, filed under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and various sections of the Indian Penal Code including theft and receiving stolen property, was taken cognisance of on June 12. The court issued summons on June 18 to Sriki, his accountant Robin Khandelwal from Kolkata, Nalapad (son of Karnataka Congress MLA N A Haris), Nafi Mohammed Nasar, and Vijay L. A sixth accused, Ayaz Mohammed, has been reported dead.
According to the chargesheet, Sriki is accused of hacking into Unocoin, one of India's first cryptocurrency exchanges based in Tumakuru, in 2017. The other accused are alleged to have received, stored, and benefited from the stolen cryptocurrency.
Sriki is currently in jail following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on May 8, along with Khandelwal and businessman Sunish Hegde, in a larger money-laundering probe linked to multiple hacking crimes between 2017 and 2020, including the Unocoin hack. Sriki, who studied Computer Science abroad and returned to India around 2017, and Khandelwal were initially arrested by the Bengaluru Crime Branch in November 2020 for buying drugs online using Bitcoin.
The case led to the exposure of several cybercrimes in Karnataka involving Sriki, including a Rs 11.5 crore theft from the state e-procurement portal in 2019.
The Unocoin hacking case originated from a complaint on July 17, 2017, by Harish B V, a co-founder of Unocoin Technologies, who stated that 60.6 Bitcoins were stolen from the exchange on June 23, 2017. The stolen cryptocurrency was moved to two online locations.
Police investigations revealed evidence from a laptop seized from Sriki in 2020 linking him to the hack. Nalapad is accused of receiving about Rs 10 lakh from the stolen funds, allegedly as a beneficiary due to his association with Sriki. The ED conducted searches on April 20 at properties linked to Sriki, the Nalapad brothers, Aqueeb Khan (grandson of former Congress MP Rehman Khan), and Hegde.
In court filings, the ED stated that Sriki, Khandelwal, and Hegde were linked to five cases in Karnataka between 2017 and 2020 involving cryptocurrency theft or website attacks, with funds laundered through luxury spending, private jets, gambling, cars, and high-end resorts. The ED also named the Nalapad brothers, Aqueeb Khan, Prasidh Shetty, and Sujay R as beneficiaries in the Unocoin case.
