High Court quashes KCOCA charges against Bitcoin accused

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: The High Court of Karnataka cancelled the addition of a stringent case under Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act, 2000, against accused Sirkrishna Ramesh and Robin Khandelwal, in connection with the Bitcoin fraud case.

Pointing out that invoking KCOCA violated a condition prescribed under Section 2(d) of the Act for invoking this law against the accused involved in criminal cases, the court quashed the sanction granted on May 20 by the Deputy Inspector General of Police (CID) to the SIT to invoke Section 3 of the KCOCA against Srikrishna alias Sriki, 29, and another accused Robin Khandelwal, 35.

Justice SR Krishna Kumar passed the order while allowing separate petitions filed by Sriki and Naresh Kumar Khandelwal, a resident of Bardhaman in West Bengal and father of Robin.

As per Section 2(d) of KCOCA, the HC said, the provision of this law could be invoked against the accused in a criminal case if they are allegedly found involved in ‘continuing unlawful activities’ as defined in the Act.

For this, Justice Kumar said, the Section 2(d) makes it clear that the provision of KCOCA can be invoked against an accused person only if minimum of two charge sheets are filed.