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Karnataka Bitcoin Case: Procedural Hurdles and Police Chargesheet

Friday, July 10, 2026
5 min read
Karnataka Bitcoin Case: Procedural Hurdles and Police Chargesheet

Four police officers got dropped from the chargesheet in that Karnataka Bitcoin illegal transfer case. The reason? The home department refused to grant prosecution sanction against them. It’s a messy situation, really.

The CID Special Investigation Team that team looked into the alleged illegal detention of the notorious hacker Srikrishna alias Sriki and the attempt to move his Bitcoins they did file chargesheet before the 1st ACMM Court. But here’s the snag: cyber expert KS Santosh Kumar and others are the ones facing that official paperwork now.

DySP Sridhar K Poojar and police inspectors DM Prashanth Babu, Laxmekanthiah, and Chandradhar? They were arrested, jailed back then. Now they’re just out of the chargesheet. It feels like a procedural roadblock, you know?

An investigating officer said the probe found that these four officers, along with Santosh Kumar, allegedly tried to move Sriki’s Bitcoins. But because the home department wouldn't sign off on prosecution sanction that was mandatory the agency just couldn't proceed against them. So their names got dropped from the chargesheet.

You have to remember the rules here. Section 197 of the CrPC demands prosecution sanction before you can charge a public servant for things done while on duty. And there’s that Prevention of Corruption Act, Section 19 you need prior sanction too if you’re dealing with government officials. Since these were police officers, the Karnataka Police Act sanctions also came into play.

Sources told us they chased three separate prosecution sanctions from the home department. All were rejected. That's why the four officers got excluded. It just stalls things.

The chargesheet itself went against the first accused, KS Santosh Kumar the cyber expert and owner of GCID Technologies.

Santosh Kumar’s side of the story is different, obviously. The SIT alleged that he misused hacker Sriki’s wallets. And illegally moved several lakhs in Bitcoins from Khandelwal’s wallet. They also pointed to fraud, messed-up records, just general irregularities that stuff ended up in the chargesheet.

This whole Bitcoin drama blew up into a massive political mess in Karnataka. Congress and BJP started throwing around accusations, blaming each other for protecting influential politicians and senior police officers who supposedly benefited from Sriki’s activities. Then the state government stepped in and set up this SIT to look at everything related to Bitcoin stuff.

The SIT did dig into things over the years. They looked into nine separate Bitcoin-related cases. Those registered by CID, Cottonpet police all of them got reports submitted to the court.

In one of those checks involving Sriki between 2020 and 2021, the SIT found that he was allegedly kept in illegal custody. And they noted that Bitcoins worth about eighteen lakh rupees were moved from his wallet during that time. That’s another piece of the puzzle coming out of the investigation.

Later on, based on those findings, a separate FIR got registered against then CCB DySP Poojar and three police inspectors involved. All four officers were arrested during the main probe. It all seems to spin in circles, doesn't it? A lot of moving parts there.

Written by Gree News Team — Senior Editorial Board

Gree News Team covers international news and global affairs at Gree News. Our collective of senior editors is dedicated to providing independent, accurate, and responsible journalism for a global audience.

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