HYDERABAD: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) officials, who are investigating the data theft case, in which IT Grids India Private Limited had allegedly played a key role, are understood to have come to a conclusion that the company and its management have misused the data of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh government beneficiaries and utilised their details for checking ‘political preferences’ during elections. It is learnt that the SIT officials got the information following the checks carried out by cybercrime experts who analysed the data obtained from the company.
As far as data theft case is concerned, almost 75 per cent of the investigation was completed based on technical evidence and the cybercrime experts led by its senior officials, who are also part of SIT, have reportedly arrived at a conclusion that the data of thousands of beneficiaries from both the Telugu states was misused by the IT Grids without the knowledge of beneficiaries.
“The IT Grids company obtained the data from ‘sources’ and this was utilised for conducting surveys and for favouring a few political parties during the elections. For instance, as per the data recovered, the company had complete knowledge of the financial activities of several citizens as it had hold of their Aadhar card number. The IT Grids was able to access this using the latest technology designed by the company and thus they were able to get hold of information like bank accounts details of the beneficiaries,” sources said.
A status report on the progress of the investigation is likely to be submitted to the State government soon. Before coming to a conclusion in preparing a comprehensive report, the investigating officers would take legal opinion on framing charges against the accused.