A 30-year-old Bengaluru hacker at the centre of an alleged corruption nexus involving police and politicians amassed over Rs 288 crore through hacking activities, a special court for money-laundering cases noted this week while rejecting his bail plea.“The investigation has quantified the alleged proceeds of crime at approximately Rs 288,96,54,677,” the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court noted in its August 27 order, rejecting the bail pleas of hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki and his accountant Robin Khandelwal.Sriki has been in jail for three months after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in May.The court considered prima facie evidence against Sriki—who moved with sons of top politicians in Bengaluru between 2017 and 2021 and allegedly hacked cryptocurrency exchanges, poker and gaming sites, and state e‑tender portals—while rejecting his bail plea.Also Read | Karnataka bitcoin scam: SIT closes cases against cops after prosecution nod deniedThe court said that “the material relied upon by the prosecution prima-facie indicates his alleged involvement in generating the proceeds through hacking activities and thereafter in their possession, transfer, concealment and utilisation. Thus, the role attributed to the petitioner is neither peripheral nor incidental.”“The ED has specifically alleged that the proceeds of crime were routed through multiple wallets and intermediary channels and that technologies such as mixers and CoinJoin were used for concealing or obfuscating the trail of the virtual digital assets. It is further alleged that the proceeds were utilised towards online betting and gambling, hotel accommodation, travel, luxury expenditure and payments to associates,” the court noted.The court said that the contention that no proceeds of crime were recovered or attached from the petitioner’s physical possession “does not, by itself, demolish the prosecution case”. “The allegations relate substantially to virtual digital assets, which by nature are capable of being transferred through digital wallets and various cryptocurrency platforms,” it added.Story continues below this adThe special court also pointed out that Sriki continued to indulge in illegal activities even after the Bengaluru police arrested him in 2020 for hacking-related offences.Also Read | ED files chargesheet against hacker Sriki, others in crypto laundering probeSriki claimed that he had responded to over 30 summonses issued by the ED over five years and argued that his arrest on May 8 was unwarranted given his cooperation with the central agency.The court said, given the gravity of the alleged offences, “the large amount of proceeds of crime alleged by the prosecution, the specific role attributed to the petitioner in the generation and subsequent handling of such proceeds and the digital, financial and other corroborative material collected during investigation, this court is unable to form a reasonable belief that the petitioner is not guilty of the offence of money laundering”.Hacker’s associates also denied bailIn Khandelwal’s case, the court said the ED’s finding of Rs 1.28 crore worth of proceeds goes against him. The alleged communications with his co-accused (Sriki), the statements recorded under the PMLA, the alleged routing and layering of virtual digital assets through Khandelwal’s accounts, bank transactions, and “more particularly, the seizure of USDT 53,936.99 from his possession,” do not provide “reasonable grounds for believing that petitioner is not guilty of the offence of money-laundering”, the court said.Story continues below this adIn June, a court rejected the bail of Bengaluru businessman Sunish Hegde, who runs poker and gambling outlets in Karnataka and was arrested along with Sriki and Khandelwal. An alleged beneficiary of the hacking crimes, the Karnataka High Court later granted bail to Hegde on medical grounds.Also Read | Famous hacker helped Bengaluru man make Rs 2 crore in cash, crypto: ProbeIncidentally, a Karnataka Police Special Investigation Team named Sriki, Khandelwal, Congress leader Mohammed Haris Nalapad, and their associates Nafi Mohammed Nasar and Vijay L as accused in a chargesheet filed in May this year in the 2017 Unocoin exchange hacking case. Nalapad is the son of Congress MLA N A Haris, the chairman of the Bengaluru Development Authority. Nalapad and others sought exemption from appearance in a Tumakuru court on August 24 after they were summoned.From drug purchase to cybercrimesSriki was raised in Bengaluru and studied computer science abroad before returning to India around 2017. He and Khandelwal, whom he met online while trading in cryptocurrency, were initially arrested by the Bengaluru Crime Branch in November 2020 on charges of buying drugs online using Bitcoin.The case led to the cracking of several cybercrimes in Karnataka, including a Rs 11.5 crore heist from the state e-procurement portal in 2019, the 2017 hacking of the Unocoin exchange, and the hacking of multiple poker and gaming websites.Story continues below this adAlso Read | Unocoin Bitcoin theft case: Karnataka Police SIT names Congress MLA N A Haris’s son in chargesheetThe Congress government in July 2023 set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe allegations of police and political involvement in corruption during the investigation in the BJP tenure from 2019-23.The SIT has investigated several police officers, who were part of the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch unit in the 2020-2021 period, for corruption. The Karnataka SIT has suggested that Sriki possessed over 4,000 Bitcoin valued at Rs 850 crore at the time of his arrest in November 2020.