HYDERABAD: One more case was registered against IT Grids India Pvt Ltd for alleged theft of Aadhar data of voters in Andhra Pradesh and misuse of information, police said on Saturday. According to police, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) officials received information about Aadhar data leak and misuse of information by IT Grid India. Following a complaint, Madhapur police booked cases under Aadhar Act and transferred the case to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for further investigation.
Police registered cases under Section 37, 38, 40, 42, 44 of the Aadhar Act and the case was transferred to SIT. The UIDAI has told police that the structure and size of the database was similar to that of database that could have been originally owned by UIDAI.
It raised suspicion over the data that could have been obtained either from the central identities data repository (CIDR) or one of the state resident data hubs (SRDH) aligned to CIDR. According to police, ‘a whopping 7,82,21,397 records of Aadhaar data belonging to the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were found and used by IT Grids India Pvt Ltd for the purpose of Seva Mitra Application belonging to TDP.’
“Availability of such unique information of an Aadhaar number indicates that the accused in the case might have illegally accessed CIDR or SRDH and has used such information or data for wrongful gain,” the complainant said.
The Hyderabad-based firm, IT Grids India Pvt Ltd, was first booked in March and sensitive data was found in possession of the company. Two cases registered against the firm was transferred to a special investigation team to investigate into larger aspects of alleged data theft through “Seva Mitra” mobile application allegedly used by the ruling TDP in the state.
It was found by police that the firm had illegal access to personal data of individuals such as Aadhaar, electoral ID, government schemes availed etc which could be misused. It was also alleged that the data was used for voter profiling, deletions and target campaigns. The seized digital evidence was sent to Telangana State Forensic Science Laboratory (TSFSL) for forensic examination. It is learnt that this FSL’s findings has been shared with UIDAI, following which the latter has approached the Madhapur police with a complaint.