Karnataka court summons hacker, Congress leader in Unocoin Bitcoin theft case

A magistrate’s court in Karnataka has taken cognisance of a police chargesheet filed against international hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki and five associates, including Youth Congress leader Mohammed Haris Nalapad, in connection with the 2017 theft of 60.6 Bitcoin worth Rs 1.14 crore from the cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin. It also directed them to appear before it on June 24.

The court in the Tumakuru region took cognisance of the chargesheet on June 12. Subsequently, on June 18, it summoned Sriki, his accountant from Kolkata, Robin Khandelwal, Nalapad, the son of Karnataka Congress MLA and Bengaluru Development Authority chairman N A Haris, and their associates Nafi Mohammed Nasar and Vijay L to appear before it.

A sixth person named in the chargesheet, Ayaz Mohammed, has been reported dead.

A Karnataka Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) filed the chargesheet under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, for the offence of hacking and Indian Penal Code sections related to theft, receiving stolen property, and concealing stolen property, among others.

While Sriki is accused of hacking into the Unocoin exchange—one of India’s first cryptocurrency exchanges located in Tumakuru—in 2017, the others are accused of receiving, storing and enjoying the proceeds of the crime.

Sriki is currently in jail after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, along with Khandelwal and businessman Sunish Hegde, on May 8 in connection with a larger money-laundering probe linked to multiple hacking crimes executed between 2017 and 2020, including the Unocoin hack.

Sriki, who was raised in Bengaluru and studied Computer Science abroad before returning to India around 2017, and Khandelwal were initially arrested by the Bengaluru Crime Branch in November 2020 on charges of buying drugs online using Bitcoin.

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The case eventually led to the cracking of several cybercrimes in Karnataka involving Sriki, including a Rs 11.5 crore heist from the state e-procurement portal in 2019.

Unocoin exchange hacking case

The Unocoin exchange hacking case pertains to a police complaint lodged on July 17, 2017, by Harish B V, a co-founder of Unocoin Technologies in Tumakuru. He stated that 60.6 Bitcoins were stolen from the exchange by unknown persons through hacking on June 23, 2017.

The complaint alleged that the total value of the stolen Bitcoin was Rs 1.14 crore and that the stolen cryptocurrency was moved to two separate online locations.

According to case documents filed by the police in court, investigations into a laptop seized from Sriki after his arrest by the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch in 2020 provided evidence linking him to the Unocoin exchange hacking.

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Nalapad is accused of being a beneficiary of the stolen Bitcoins due to his association with Sriki at the time of the Unocoin exchange hacking. He is alleged to have received around Rs 10 lakh from the stolen funds. Nalapad was named in the chargesheet in May, close on the heels of the ED carrying out searches on April 20 at properties belonging to Sriki, the Nalapad brothers Mohammed and Omar, Aqueeb Khan, the grandson of former Congress MP Rehman Khan, and Hegde.

ED case against hacker gang

In court filings following the arrests of Sriki, Khandelwal, and Hegde on May 8, the ED stated that the trio were linked to five cases registered in Karnataka between 2017 and 2020. These cases allegedly involved cryptocurrency theft or attacks on websites, with funds later laundered through various means, including splurging on a luxurious life, renting private jets, gambling, buying cars and staying in high-end resorts.

The ED has also referred to the 2017 Unocoin hacking case and said that the Nalapad brothers, Aqueeb Khan, and their associates Prasidh Shetty and Sujay R were beneficiaries. The Karnataka SIT and the ED had earlier questioned the Nalapad brothers and Aqueeb Khan in 2024 and 2025 about their alleged financial transactions with Sriki.

The SIT had also arrested Sriki and Khandelwal in 2024 in connection with the Unocoin hacking case but had not arrested any of the others now named in the chargesheet.

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Statements implicating the gang

According to Khandelwal’s statements to Bengaluru police in 2020-21, he sold 130 Bitcoins given to him by Sriki between 2017-20 and Rs 3.48 crore from the sale of the Bitcoins was moved into accounts of people indicated by the hacker. He added that Rs 1.5 crore was provided in cash (through hawala routes) to Sriki himself.

In the statements to the police after his arrest in November 2020 by the Bengaluru Crime Branch, Khandelwal had also indicated links to the Nalapad brothers. He reported meeting Sriki at a five-star hotel with the Nalapad brothers and their associate Mohammed Nafi and others during a visit to Bengaluru in January 2018.

“At this time, Srikrishna had hacked the databases of Bitcoin exchanges and kept a lot of Bitcoins with him. He showed me the Unocoin database,” Khandelwal’s statement to the police in 2021 states.

According to Khandelwal’s bank records, which were attached to earlier chargesheets filed by the Bengaluru police against Sriki and his associates, Rs 11 lakh was paid to Chipsan Aviation Pvt Ltd at the hacker’s instance; Rs 45 lakh for the purchase of a Porsche Macan car in Bengaluru by an associate; and Rs 27 lakh was given to Nafi, among others. Incidentally, the ED raids at 12 locations on April 20 also included the Chipsan Aviation firm.

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In a statement given to the Karnataka CID police in 2021—following his arrest in connection with a July 2019 hacking of the Karnataka government’s e-procurement portal, which resulted in a Rs 11.5 crore heist—Sriki claimed to have made an “investment” of 150 Bitcoin and 1,100 Ethereum with Mohammed Nalapad after meeting the brothers in 2017.

A whiff of corruption

The police handling of cases involving Sriki under the BJP regime in Karnataka, following the first arrests in November 2020, led to allegations of corruption from the Congress while it was in opposition between 2020 and 2023.

In July 2023, shortly after it came to power, the Congress government set up an SIT to probe the Karnataka Bitcoin scam and allegations of corruption during the investigation from 2019 to 2023.

Allegations were raised that police officials and politically connected people seized a large cache of Bitcoin found in Sriki’s crypto wallets after his arrest in November 2020. Several officers from the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch unit in the 2020-2021 period have since been investigated by the SIT for corruption in connection with the hacker’s cases. Four officers have been accused of wrongdoing, along with a cyber expert who assisted the police in probing the cases.

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In the Unocoin hacking case, a director of the cryptocurrency exchange is alleged to have paid Rs 7 lakh to a Bengaluru police officer to recover the stolen Bitcoin after Sriki was first arrested, the SIT has found, as per legal filings.

Based on witness statements, the SIT has suggested that Sriki had over 4,000 Bitcoin valued at Rs 850 crore at the time of his arrest in November 2020.