Police arrested after stealing bitcoin from hacker
Chandrahar, who was an Indian police investigator, used his position to access and transfer bitcoins from the digital wallet of a hacker involved in a scam.
The wallet was supposed to be evidence in an investigation spanning several high-profile hackers at cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bitfinex and Unocoin, orchestrated by hackers Srikrishna Ramesh and Robin Khandelwal.
Although the duo was caught with around $660,000 from their cybercrimes, part of the amount mysteriously disappeared during the investigation.
The disappearance of the bitcoins led to the formation of a special investigation, which discovered that they had been stolen by the police themselves.
Chandrahar, along with two other police officers and a private cyber expert, Santosh Kumar, gained access to the wallet, coercing the hacker into transferring the funds and then trying to erase traces of the movement.
In a statement, authorities said that the actions of the three involved undermined the integrity of the police force, in addition to compromising the entire investigation against hackers.
