'Interim court order' in Bitcoin case stumps SIT, CCB

In a curious development in the Bitcoin case, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) didn't receive the case file from the Central Crime Branch (CCB) on Wednesday due to confusion about an interim order passed by the high court.

The Daily Orders information displayed on the high court website in two hearings on September 7, 2022, and September 19, 2022, states that "the interim order granted earlier is extended till the next date of hearing".

Sunish Hegde, one of the accused in the case, filed a Criminal Petition in the high court on September 9, 2021.

Shockingly, police officers investigating the high-profile case didn't keep track of the case status.

According to sources, no official in the CCB or the Bengaluru police is aware of the case status. SIT and CCB officers were shocked upon seeing the mention of the interim order on the court’s website.

Contacted by DH, senior officials were tightlipped and would only say that they could comment only after verifying the case status.

Sources, however, said that senior officers from the city police spoke to Special Public Prosecutor Prasanna Kumar P only on Wednesday about the case status. Without verifying the case status, the city police chief had written to DG&IGP, requesting that the Bitcoin case investigation be handed over to the CID. The letter was written following a government direction.

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The state government constituted the SIT in view of professional jealousy between the CID and the CCB.

CCB officials who initially investigated the Bitcoin case are unhappy at the inclusion of a CID officer in the SIT. This is because all allegations in the case cropped up only after the officer in question and his team got into a controversy over collecting mirror images of the evidence from the CCB. The CCB had seized the evidence from hacker Srikrishna alias Sriki and other accused persons after first arresting him in a drug-peddling case.

Prasanna told DH: “The court never granted an interim order in this matter looking into the gravity of the offences. However, in the order sheet, it is shown that the interim order granted earlier is continued. We will seek clarification from the court tomorrow (Thursday)."

But CCB officers argue that if no interim order was granted by the court, why could it be mentioned at two hearings?

Without verifying, the police gave information to the state government about the officials to be included in the SIT. The government appointed the Investigation Officer (IO) on Tuesday.