HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Andhra Pradesh government, AP state chief electoral officer, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI - Aadhaar) chief executive officer and its registrar / enrolling agency for AP to respond on the petition filed by IT Grids company director D Ashok seeking to quash the cases registered against him and his company by Telangana police and for transfer of the ongoing investigation to AP.
He sought the court to grant stay of all further proceedings, including his arrest, in the FIR registered at Madhapur (Guttala) police station on March 2 this year. Ashok was the prime suspect in the case and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by Telangana government to probe the data breach case has launched a manhunt to trace him.
On Wednesday, senior counsel from Supreme Court Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the petitioner, filed an affidavit with a plea to implead the authorities of AP government, UIDAI (Aadhaar) and others concerned as respondents to the case since the data alleged to have been stolen belongs to the Election Commission and UIDAI and the latter’s response on the issue would clarify the subject matter.
In fact, the AP chief electoral officer who was the custodian of the data pertaining to AP voters was not at all aggrieved by the alleged data theft. senior counsel S Niranjan Reddy, appearing for Lokeshwar Reddy opposed to implead the said authorities in the case saying that they were only custodians of the data and the real victims were seven crore people who included majority from AP state.
After hearing both sides, Justice Shameem Akther considered the plea of the petitioner’s counsel by impleading the above authorities as respondents to the case. After ordering notices to the concerned authorities to respond to the petition, the judge posted the matter to April 22 for further hearing.