The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against hacker Srikrishna Ramesh, alias Sriki, and 18 others linked to the hacking and theft of Rs 11.5 crore from the Karnataka government’s e-governance unit in 2019.

The chargesheet was filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, in Bengaluru court. Sriki’s three associates and colluders Vinit Kumar, Sushil Chandra, and Harwinder Singh have also been named in the ED chargesheet.

It was filed even as the newly-formed Congress government in Karnataka ordered the state police to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for fresh investigation into cases registered against the hacker during the last BJP government from 2019-2023 on account of insinuation of corruption involving police officials and politicians in the handling of Bitcoin and funds found with the hacker and associates, The Indian Express reported.

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The government order specifically directed a probe into the hacking activities involved in a crime registered by the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) in 2020 at the Cottonpet police station against Sriki and his associates accused of hacking international crypto exchanges and poker gaming sites to obtain illegal wealth.

Although the chargesheet filed by the ED this week against Sriki and 18 others is not directly linked to the 2020 CCB case, the two cases have several overlapping features—the same gang was involved in the hacking crimes and it was the arrest of Sriki by the CCB in 2020 that opened the pandora’s box on the criminal hacking activities of the gang, including a July 2019 heist of Rs 11.5 crore from the state e-procurement cell.

Cases with hacker Sriki’s involvement

Sriki and 18 others were linked to the hacking and theft of Rs 11.5 crore from the Karnataka government’s e-governance unit in 2019.

Then in 2020, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Bengaluru police had stumbled upon the suspected possession of a large quantity of Bitcoin following Sriki’s arrest in a case of procuring drugs over the dark web using cryptocurrency. The hacker reportedly claimed to have acquired a large amount of Bitcoin by hacking exchanges.

Investigations into the drug case led to the CCB filing a second case against the hacker and his high-profile associates for allegedly hacking online poker sites and crypto exchanges to acquire wealth through illegal means. The CCB investigations were however hit by allegations of corruption and diversion of wealth in the possession of the hacker gang.

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The hacking of the e-procurement cell and the alleged hacking of international bitcoin exchanges by Sriki stoked a major controversy in 2020-2021 in Karnataka following allegations by the then Opposition Congress of the involvement of people in high positions in protecting the gang.

Money laundering probe

During the money laundering probe into the theft of Rs 11.5 crore in 2019 from the e-procurement cell, the ED seized Rs 1.43 crore of stolen funds classified as proceeds of the hacking crime. ED in its seizure report in August 2021 said the gang involved in the hacking crime paid commissions to businessmen who received stolen funds in their accounts to facilitate cash transfers back to the hackers, according to an IE report.

The central probe agency has also questioned several people, including the sons and grandsons of several prominent politicians cutting across the political spectrum who were associated with the hacker and his activities from around 2018, in the course of its money laundering probe.

The agency also investigated transactions linked to Sriki’s older brother Sudarshan Ramesh, who was prevented from leaving India in January 2022 by immigration authorities on the basis of a lookout circular issued at ED’s instance.

ED had informed the Karnataka High Court at the time that Sriki was involved in laundering funds stolen through hacking crimes. The agency alleged Sriki used cryptocurrencies to launder funds stolen through his hacking activities. He allegedly carried out conversions to multiple cryptocurrencies and traded the converted cryptocurrency on international platforms for personal gains, it added.