‘IT Grids tracked beneficiaries of AP government programmes living in Telangana’

IT Grids had provided information technology (IT) services and IT enabled services (ITES) to Telugu Desam Party and its affiliate bodies.

Cyberabad Police stand guard outside IT Grids India Private Limited’s office at Ayyappa Society, Madhapur in the city on Tuesday | S Sengabapandiyan

HYDERABAD: IT Grids India Private Limited allegedly obtained data of beneficiaries of Andhra Pradesh government programmes, living in the Telangana State, illegally along with total data of 3.5 crore voters in the State.

City police, who recently registered cases in connection with the data theft and are in touch with Cyberabad police regarding the probe, are understood to have obtained inputs that IT Grids management allegedly obtained data of the beneficiaries of Andhra Pradesh.

“Lokeshwar Reddy lodged a complaint with Madhapur police (Cyberabad) while Dasharatharami Reddy lodged a complaint with SR Nagar police (Hyderabad). Both complainants, and residents of the city, sensed that their data and their family members’ data, which is supposed to have been secret, was misused by private persons and was handed over to private agencies for other purposes,” said officials who are associated with the investigation team.

IT Grids had provided information technology (IT) services and IT enabled services (ITES) to Telugu Desam Party and its affiliate bodies. It even designed the party’s official mobile application ‘Seva Mitra’.
“During preliminary inquiries, investigators obtained clues that IT Grids collected complete details of AP people living in Telangana and twin cities who were are recipients of AP government schemes. They had data of members of the DWCRA, old age pensioners, ration cards holders. They even had these people’s Aadhar cards, bank account details and other details,” sources said.

Interestingly, IT Grids allegedly also kept track of financial transactions of such beneficiaries by making calls from several numbers, pretending to need information for surveys. In fact, the suspicion of data theft had come when the two complainants received a number of calls from different caller IDs based in the city.

Man of the moment

44-year-old IT Grids India Private Company director D Ashok, who is close to TDP leaders, allegedly conducted various kinds of surveys for TDP in several elections since 2004. In 2009 elections, Ashok and his team had conducted surveys for the TDP in both states, sources said.