CID arrests Dy.SP rank officer Shridhar Pujar in bitcoin scam
The Hindu
DySP Shridhar K. Pujar arrested in bitcoin scam, sent to 3-day police custody after High Court intervention.
The Special Investigation Team of the Criminal Investigation Department on Monday (Oct 7) arrested Shridhar K. Pujar, 47, a DySP rank police officer accused in the bitcoin scam. He has been sent to three-day police custody.
Pujar, who was in the Central Crime Branch when the scam was in the making, had remained elusive from the SIT before the High Court granted him relief. The accused had escaped from the sleuths after a filmi-style chase near Coffee Board Signal. The SIT had announced a cash reward for finding him.
After he moved the High Court for quashing of FIRs, the court, on May 6, 2024, directed Pujar to appear before the investigating officer on May 8, 2024. It had also quashed a lower court order which declared him as a proclaimed offender.
According to SIT sources, he was arrested on Monday when he appeared before the investigation team. It is alleged in the FIR that the then CCB inspector (narcotics) Pujar, who was probing the drug case, kept hacker Srikrishna Ramesh, aka Sriki (accused number 10), in illegal custody for three days between November 14 and November 17, 2020, at a guest house in Central Armed Reserve headquarters in Mysuru Road.
The FIR also said Pujar kept Sriki’s associate Robin Khandelwal (accused number 12) in illegal custody for four days in the same place between November 14 and November 18, 2020.
According to SIT sources, the illegal custody kept by Pujar resulted in the transfer of bitcoins. Sriki was called as a witness to record his statement.