Complaint against IT firm staff for illegally accessing Aadhaar data

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) officials at the regional office in Bengaluru have filed a police complaint against employees of an IT company in Indiranagar for illegally accessing Aadhaar data.

The suspects are Abhinav Shirvastava and others of Qarth Technologies Pvt Ltd.

According to the complaint by Ashok Lenin, deputy director of UIDAI, the suspects had developed an app to provide e-Know Your Customer (KYC) documents.

Aadhaar database
The documents were allegedly provided by accessing the Aadhaar database without permission from either the UIDAI or other competent authorities.

According to the complaint, UIDAI officials said that the suspects may have colluded with some unnamed persons, including insiders, to access the secure UIDAI database and leak information to Qarth Technologies. Accessing secure Aadhaar database and leaking information from it is an offence under Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act 2016 and Information Technology Act, 2000, the FIR stated.

When contacted, Pranab Mohanty, deputy director general, UIDAI, Bengaluru confirmed that a case has
been filed at High Grounds police station in Bengaluru, but is unaware of the details in the FIR.

However, sources from UIDAI said that it was a technical case of malpractice or fault that led to illegal access by a private third party.