IIT graduate held for illegally accessing Aadhaar database

POLICE SAID THE TECHIE ACCESSED THE DATA THROUGH A MOBILE APPLICATION THAT HE HAD DEVELOPED

A Bengaluru-based software developer was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly accessing the Aadhaar database through a mobile application he had developed, city police commissioner T Suneel Kumar told mediapersons on Thursday.

Thirty-one-year-old Abhinav Shrivastav, an alumnus of IITKharagpur, hails from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The app used for the alleged cybercrime was identified as ‘Aadhaar E-KYC Verification’, downloadable on Google Play. It was deactivated last month.

Police said that the techie, whose start-up ‘Qarth Technologies’ was bought by Ola, had accessed the Aadhaar database through the e-Hospital application of the National Informatics Centre – an authentication user agency. The Unique Identification Authority of India had filed a complaint accusing Shrivastav of illegally accessing the Aadhaar database on June 26.

The cyber crime police said Shrivastav has developed five mobile phone applications, including the one under investigation, until now.

The ‘Aadhaar E-KYC Verification’ app was downloaded 50,000 times, and the accused had made ₹40,000 through ad revenue.

A computer CPU, four laptops, four mobile phones, six pen drives and other items worth ₹2.25 lakh were seized from Shrivastav’s possession.

Police are also investigating the role of potential insiders in the case.