Two brothers arrested for operating websites with people’s personal data
Mumbai: Two brothers from Mulund have been arrested for allegedly developing two websites that could provide personal details like Aadhaar numbers, residential addresses, email information etc
Mumbai: Two brothers from Mulund have been arrested for allegedly developing two websites that could provide personal details like Aadhaar numbers, residential addresses, email information etc., of scores of people by simply searching the person’s name or contact number.
The Mumbai Crime Branch found that both the websites contained details of people from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi, and the accused were sharing the ID and passwords to the customers of the website - mostly loan-providing agencies, in exchange for money.
The arrested accused, identified as Nikhil Suryaprakash Yeligatti, 23, and his elder brother Rahul Yeligatti, 26, both reside in Navghar area in Mulund East. They have been booked under sections 379 (theft), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act. They were produced in court and remanded in police custody till December 4 for further investigation.
The crime branch is now investigating how the accused obtained a huge number of personal details of people, which are restricted to certain government agencies.
“As per the preliminary investigation, it emerged that the accused had been running this illegal activity for over two years with the help of two other suspects - Malvin Modi and Bhavesh Modi,” said a police officer.
The officer said the two charged people from ₹2,000 a month to ₹24,000 for annual access to the websites and mobile applications developed by them where the users would get access to the data such as permanent address, temporary address, mobile numbers, Aadhaar numbers of individuals and also the details of their family members, said an official.
Officials of Unit 6 of the Crime Branch had received information about the scam two months ago, and while verifying the facts, the police contacted a person known to the accused and through him, an informant was made to connect with Nikhil to get an ID and password by paying ₹5,000, said the officer.
The officer said that the website also had information about several police officials.
Police then conducted a raid at the accused’s place in Mulund East and seized laptops, mobile phones and other incriminating documents for investigation.