Aadhaar touts charge Rs 1500 to give out UP Deputy CM's identity: Report

At the right price, anything can be bought and sold. But what about an identity? A UP syndicate has been making that possible too.

At an Aadhaar Seva Kendra close to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in Lucknow, fearless touts are promising to deliver anything at a price, even if it is giving its customer the name of the state's deputy chief minister.

"I'm from Bakshi Ka Talab area and a huge admirer of deputy CM Brajesh Pathak. I wish to change my name spelling from Brijesh Pathak to Brajesh Pathak, but there are no documents to support this," a Times of India reporter dropped the bait to one tout who identified himself as Rajesh.

Nodding at him, the tout downloaded the EPIC ID of another Brajesh Pathak and replaced his photo with the reporter's photo, and added a fake barcode. A few minutes, and a bribe of Rs 1,500 later, an appointment was booked for updating the Aadhaar for the same afternoon.

"Go straight to the verifier. No questions will be asked," the publication quoted the tout as saying.

Things unfolded exactly as Rajesh had assured, and at around 2 pm, the reporter, along with nearly 20 others who were there with the help of touts, were called, before the turn of genuine applicants came.

In less than an hour, a staff member took his iris scan and processed the update, giving birth to his new identity.

Since the last few years, Smart Chip Private Limited, the Indian subsidiary of French multinational IDEMIA group has been operating the Aadhaar Seva Kendra in question. However, they did not comment on the matter since they are under a UIDAI contract.

Meanwhile, Prashant Kumar Singh, deputy DG of UIDAI (Lucknow region) told TOI: "A recent surprise inspection at ASK Ratan Square revealed irregularities, prompting a decoy operation on April 21 that uncovered the modus operandi. The matter has been escalated to the agency concerned for probe and filing an FIR. We assure all UIDAI's backend quality checks verify document genuineness, rejecting any fake submissions."