SIT of the CCB has arrested Chandradhar, a former police inspector involved for his involvement in a cyber fraudulent bitcoin scam in the year 2020. This is the fourth suspect who is being arrested in the case. Chandradhar has been charged for defrauding Bitcoins valued at ₹1.8 crore.
Chandradhar had been seeking ways out of being arrested ever since his anticipatory bail petition was dismissed. After tracking down by the SIT, he was arrested by the team at his house located at Vidyaranyapura, North Bengaluru on Wednesday. He had been in hiding, it was learned, after the summons for questioning was extended to him, based on an SIT source.
It was after a First Information Report (FIR) by K. Ravishankar who is an investigating officer with the SIT at the cybercrime police station. Chandradhar is accused of hacking into Bitcoin wallets which were under the administration of Robin Khandelwal, employed by hacker Srikrishna. According to the police, Chandradhar cheated people and made away with Bitcoins of rupees 1.8 crore and also destroyed certain evidence that is linked to these transactions.
Other persons mentioned in the FIR are Santosh Kumar K. S who is the CEO of GCID Technologies Pvt Ltd, and Prashanth Babu D. M who was a police inspector in charge of the technical support of the CCB in 2020. The Two other Inspectors are, Lakshmikanthaiah and Shridhar K Pujar.
The probe indicated that Chandradhar accompanied by two others from CCB sought technical assistance from Santosh Kumar and got Khandelwal’s Bitcoin wallet opened at the office of his company in HSR Layout between December 30, 2020, and January 6, 2022.
Other police officers who have been arrested in connection to the Bitcoins scam include Prashantha Babu and Lakshmikanthaiah. Srikrishna is now in judicial custody, while Khandelwal has been taken by SIT for questioning and interrogation.
Inspector Pujar, another accused, has gone into hiding following a Supreme Court intervention that stayed the Karnataka High Court’s order granting him anticipatory bail.
An SIT officer stated that Chandradhar has been taken into custody for five days after being presented in court on Wednesday. Chandradhar faces charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including criminal breach of trust by a public servant, mischief, common intention, omission, cooperation in crime, destruction of evidence, and destruction of documentary evidence.
The FIR also implicates the four officers in two other cases filed in 2020 at the Ashok Nagar and Bengaluru City cyber crime police stations.
