New Delhi: Four people have been arrested for allegedly leaking data about the Aadhaar and passports of over 81 crore Indians and putting it on sale on the dark web. A senior central agency officer said the Delhi Police's cybercrime brunch took suo motu cognisance of the data leak earlier this month and lodged an FIR.
In October, the breach was detected after Aadhaar and passport details were being offered for sale on the dark web. As per sources, the miscreants claimed to have stolen data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) — Pakistan’s Aadhaar counterpart.
Meanwhile, the suspects have been reportedly identified as a B.Tech degree holder who hails from Odisha, two school dropouts, belonging to Haryana and one from Jhansi. It is also reported that the four were produced before a Delhi court, which remanded them in seven days of police custody.
During the investigation, the accused men said that the four met through a gaming platform three years prior and then decided to earn quick money. Subsequently, they found data of around 1 lakh citizens as a sample, out of which 50 individuals became the victims for verification, the officer said.
Following this, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saket Gokhale has accused the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre of providing false information in Parliament regarding the security of Aadhaar data. The MP also took to his X handle and slammed the ruling party.
The post read, "In Parliament, Modi Govt replied to my question & denied any breach of Aadhaar. And now 4 people have been arrested for leaking the Aadhaar & passport details of Indians on the dark web from the ICMR database. Why is your Ministry lying in Parliament, @Rajeev_GoI? What are you hiding?"
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