The FSL and C-DAC have reported on the Bengaluru bitcoin fraud, alleging that an inspector changed data

Police inspector Prashanth Babu DM tampered with electronic data, according to reports from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing), which were obtained by the CID’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) looking into the Bitcoin fraud.

In charge of the Central Crime Branch’s (CCB) Technical Support Centre in Bengaluru, Babu manipulated data and made crucial evidence vanish by making duplicate files. This occurred after the investigating officer brought electronic devices—including laptops and MacBooks—seized from the accused out of court custody so they could be mirrored.

This was revealed by the CID in its statement of objections to Prashanth Babu’s request for anticipatory bail in a crime that the CID had lodged with Cottonpet police based on the FSL report, which was submitted before Yashwanth Kumar, LI Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge. It was revealed that tampered with electronic items, including laptops, MacBooks, cell phones, pen drives, hard drives, and cryptocurrency wallets, that were found in a 2020 crime reported to the KG Nagar police department.

Babu was skilled in managing digital devices and technological evidence, according to the CID. After obtaining a MacBook and other electronic devices with the court’s approval, Investigating Officer Shridhar Poojar sent them to the support center on November 21, 2020, for mirror imaging, and on December 11, 2020, they were received.

Babu obtained a Black lite instrument from the FSL without completing the proper legal procedures, and he carried out unauthorized mirror imaging with the assistance of a private individual. The CID said that Poojar applied excessive pressure on the individual to copy and move many data, including a bitcoin wallet, to external computers.

The SIT informed the court that “MacBook and laptops were in constant use in the TSC under Babu since November 17, 2020, which established the fact that Babu, in collusion with Poojar, had illegally operated the devices without permission of the court and transferred data from the original seized devices which is court property to their personal computers, tampered with evidence and caused data loss.”

It also said that the hard drive had been attached to the confiscated MacBook and laptop three times, and that Babu had tampered with the equipment, according to the C-DAC analysis report of mirror images. Without a judge’s approval, damaged seals were discovered on the confiscated devices, according to the SIT. The court recently declined to give Babu anticipatory release, noting that it must evaluate the case of a police officer and an investigating officer who are both implicated in the conduct of an offense on a separate level.