The ED alleged that proceeds of crime allegedly acquired by prime accused Robin, Sunish Hegde, and Sriki was about ₹340 crore in the money laundering case.
| Photo Credit: File photo
The High Court of Karnataka has granted bail to hacker Srikrishna Ramesh alias Sriki and Robin Khandelwal, who were arrested in May this year by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged money laundering case initiated based on the alleged cryptocurrency scam registered against them by the city police in 2020-2021.
Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty passed the order while allowing their petitions after noticing that they were already enlarged on bail in the predicate offences and there is no chance for early conclusion of trial against them in the money laundering case as it contains over 8,000-page chargesheet and 10 witnesses.
Rejecting the ED’s apprehension that if the duo were released on bail they would misuse or shift the proceeds of crime which they have parked safely in an undisclosed place, the court said that if so, “they could have very well done so before they were arrested by the ED” as the predicate offence was registered against them in 2020 and they were arrested by the ED only on May 8, 2026.
The court also noted that after registration of the predicate offence against them in 2020, no other criminal case had been registered against the petitioners, and there was no allegation against the petitioners that they had misused bail conditions in any case registered.
Meanwhile, the court directed the petitioners to execute a personal bond of ₹1 lakh each with two sureties, appear regularly before the trial court, not tamper with witnesses, and not leave the jurisdiction of the trial court without permission.
The ED had alleged that proceeds of crime allegedly acquired by the three prime accused, Robin (accused number-1), Sunish Hegde (accused number-22), and Sriki (accused number-3), was about ₹340 crore in the money laundering case.
Published – October 07, 2026 08:06 pm IST
