Man from UP held for hacking into ECI website

Saharanpur/New Delhi, Aug. 13: The Uttar Police Police has arrested a 24-year-old man from the state’s Saharanpur district for allegedly hacking into the Election Commission of India (ECI) website and creating over 10,000 fake voter IDs, officials said on Friday.

Reacting to the developments, the poll panel said its database is “absolutely safe and secure”.

The accused, Vipul Saini, who has a Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) degree, was arrested on Thursday from Nakur town’s Maccharhedi village in Saharanpur, the police said.

During initial investigation, police found that Saini worked at the behest of a person named Armaan Malik from Madhya Pradesh and created more than 10,000 fake voter IDs in over three months.

Saharanpur Senior Superintendent of Police S. Channappa said that Saini was paid `100-200 per ID. When his bank account was examined after his arrest, the police found `60 lakh deposited in it. The account was immediately frozen, he said.

An ECI spokesperson said in Delhi that assistant electoral roll officers (AERO) are mandated to provide citizen-centric services, including printing of voter ID cards and timely distribution, in line with the theme of “No voter to be left behind”.

“A data entry operator of one of the AERO offices had illegally shared his user ID and password with a private unauthorised service provider in Saharanpur’s Nakud town to print some voter ID cards.

“Both these persons have been arrested,” the spokesperson said. The EC database is “absolutely safe and secure”, the spokesperson said.

Police are investigating the source of the money in the account of the accused and trying to find more details about Malik, who, Saini said, used to send him details of the day’s work.