CM Bommai meets Yediyurappa, Kateel as Bitcoin scam casts shadow

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai called on former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa amid the opposition allegations that the BJP government was not doing enough to probe the alleged Bitcoin scam.

The two leaders reportedly had a discussion for about 30 minutes late on Friday, sources close to Bommai said.

After his meeting with Yediyurappa, Bommai went to the BJP state headquarters and was closeted with the BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel for more than an hour.

The meetings assume significance as Bommai had recently visited Delhi and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior party leaders, including BJP national president J P Nadda. Soon after the meeting, he told reporters that Modi had asked him not to worry and to work with loyalty and boldness in the interest of the people "and rest everything will be fine." Bommai had paid a two-day visit to national capital on Thursday and discussed in detail many issues, especially related to the administrative steps taken in the last 100 days since he took over as Chief Minister of Karnataka. He had termed his visit to the national capital as successful, saying the Prime Minister was all praise for some of his initiatives during this period. Soon after his return, senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar rushed to Delhi, which gave rise to speculation. These meetings were held amid Congress mounting an attack on the Chief Minister for "not initiating proper action" in the alleged Bitcoin scam involving a hacker.

Congress leaders have alleged that 'influential politicians' are involved in the scam after officials seized bitcoins worth Rs nine crore from a city based hacker, Srikrishna alias Sriki, who is also accused of hacking into government portals, sourcing drugs through the dark net and paying for it through cryptocurrency.

The party has alleged that the size of the scam could be much bigger because just on two days on December 1, 2020 and April 14, 2021 illegal transactions worth Rs 5,240 crore took place. The Congress has also wondered why Sriki, has been in custody for more than 100 days on "one pretext or the other", while no proper action was taken against him.

It also demanded to know why the RBI was not informed and assistance of Interpol was not sought. The party has also demanded a Supreme Court monitored probe as it has international ramifications.