Bengaluru hacker denied bail over ED evidence of Rs 288 crore money trail
A 30-year-old Bengaluru hacker, Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki, and his accountant, Robin Khandelwal, were denied bail by a special court for money-laundering cases after being accused of amassing over Rs 288 crore through hacking activities. The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court dismissed their bail pleas, noting that the investigation had quantified the alleged proceeds of crime at approximately Rs 288,96,54,677.
Sriki has been in jail for three months since his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in May. The court stated that the prosecution's prima-facie evidence indicated Sriki's involvement in generating the proceeds and their subsequent possession, transfer, concealment, and utilization, making his role neither peripheral nor incidental.
The ED alleged that the proceeds were routed through multiple wallets and intermediary channels, with technologies like mixers and CoinJoin used for concealing or obfuscating the trail of the virtual digital assets. The court also pointed out that Sriki continued to engage in illegal activities after his arrest in 2020 for hacking-related offenses.
Written by urgent.news from The Indian Express's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
