ED arrests three in cryptocurrency linked PMLA case

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested three persons, including an alleged crypto hacker named Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki, in a cryptocurrency-linked money laundering case, officials said on Saturday.

They said Sriki, Robin Khandelwal and Sunish Hegde were taken into custody on May 8. They were produced before a local Bengaluru court on Saturday, which sent them to 10 days of ED custody, officials said.

The central agency conducted raids in this case on April 20, including at premises linked to the accused Mohammed Haris Nalapad and Omar Farook Nalapad, sons of Karnataka Congress MLA N A Haris, and Aqeeb Khan, grandson of veteran Congress leader and former Union minister K Rahman Khan, among others.

Mohammed Haris Nalapad, a former Karnataka Youth Congress President, later interacted with the press and denied any wrongdoing, asserting that the 21 hours of search by the ED in his and his brother’s house did not yield anything.

He said his family had been in public life for a long time and that their conduct was upright.