Delhi High Court issues notices to FIU and ED regarding WazirX Hack

Three months after the Rs 2000 crore hack of WazirX crypto exchange, the Delhi High Court on Friday issued notices to India’s premier financial investigative agencies Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to seek whether an investigation can be launched against the management regarding the hack.

The Delhi High Court took up a writ petition filed by client Jaivir Bains who had demanded that the competent court should order FIU and ED to investigate how the Rs 2000 crore hack occurred. The petitioner had also objected to WazirX management trying to socialize loss of 45% user funds by taking non-stolen crypto funds of users.

A single judge bench of Delhi HC headed by Sanjeev Narula instructed Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit, to submit a status report regarding the investigation into the Rs 2000 crore hack. The detailed court order is expected to be uploaded either Friday evening or Saturday.

According to highly placed sources in Delhi High Court, the court also gave approval to the petitioner Jaivir Bains and other WazirX users to approach to approach Civil court in India to seek retrieval of their funds stuck in the exchange since July 18. After the cyber attack, WazirX had suspended all transactions and withheld crypto and INR funds of 4.4 million users.

“The Delhi HC also observed that since crypto is an unregulated entity in India, the court doesn’t have the authority to direct FIU to investigate the hack, nonetheless, it has issued notices to FIU and ED to explain whether any investigation could be launched in the matter,” said a source to The Crypto Times.

The petitioner had pleaded to the court seeking an investigation against Zanmai Labs- one of the India based parent entities of WazirX, which has been founded by Nischal Shetty, one of the co-founders of the crypto exchange.

“The court has not recorded any findings but they have recorded the submissions made by the petitioner. The Delhi Police’s IFSO is already investigating the case and now they have submit a status report to the court,” said the source.