Man behind Osama's Aadhaar card has no criminal records

A Rajasthan man arrested for trying to create an Aadhaar card in the name of the slain al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Ladin has no criminal records and is mentally fit. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Prashant Kumar on Tuesday sent the 35-year-old Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) operator Saddam Mansuri to 15-day judicial custody. Mansuri was arrested on Monday.

“Preliminary investigations reveal that he has no criminal records,”  Mandal Deputy Superintendent of Police Chanchal Mishra told DH. “We have also consulted doctors who have stated him to be mentally fit. We are preparing a charge sheet against him,” Mishra said.

Mansuri pleaded his innocence before the court saying someone else could have uploaded the enrolment details to get the card. The police claimed that the user identification logged in during the enrolment belongs to Mansuri.

“He must have done it out of curiosity. As of now, there is no other motive. We are also tracking the names of all his clients for whom he had made Aadhaar cards,” Mishra said. The address mentioned in the Aadhaar enrolment form is located in Abbottabad in north-eastern Pakistan. The police have also found that Mansuri had uploaded a pixelated photograph of Bin Laden.

The incident came to light when UIDAI officials spotted the application and contacted the Rajasthan information technology (IT) department. “We informed the local police and asked them to file an FIR against him,” said Sanjay Aludia, who works with the state IT department in Bhulwara. “Our New Delhi team found it highly suspicious and our Jaipur office asked us to book him,” Aludia added.