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4 teenagers detained in MP’s Morena for hacking ECI website, creating fake voter IDs
All of the detained belong to underprivileged families and are school drop-outs, police said. They became a part of the gang to earn quick money, the officer added.
The Madhya Pradesh police detained four teenagers from Morena to nab an 18-year-old accused in connection with an alleged compromise of the Election Commission of India’s website and creating fake voter IDs, said a police officer. The Election Commission, however, said that its website has not been hacked.
The police in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday arrested Vipul Saini, 24, for allegedly creating hundreds of fake voter IDs. Saini had created more than 10,000 fake voter IDs over a time span of three months, at the behest of a person named Armaan Malik, a resident of Harda, Madhya Pradesh.
UP police informed MP police about the involvement of 18-year-old Hariom Singh, a resident of Ambah, Morena. Police are trying to nab Hariom, son of a daily wage earner.
“Hariom Singh was directly in touch with Vipul Saini and used to keep IDs to sell it to others. Police on Friday detained four teenagers aged between 17 and 19 years who were in contact with Hariom. One of the detainees told the police that they have at least 10 million genuine and fake IDs. They used to sell the data to fraudsters who mainly used the IDs for purchasing SIM cards, opening bank accounts and for committing online fraud,” said a senior police official, who is not authorized to talk to the media.
According to the police, these teenagers reportedly claimed that they were working for Hariom and the police are trying to find out details about their bank accounts to find how much money they made. The MP police have also seized their mobile phones to know more about the other gang members, said another officer, who was not willing to be named.
All of the detained belong to underprivileged families and are school drop-outs, police said. They became a part of the gang to earn quick money, the officer added.
MP police is also trying to get details of Malik. Malik is presently living in New Delhi and seems to be the mastermind of the gang. Saini told the police that Malik used to give him details for creating fake voter IDs. He used to get ₹200 for one voter ID. Police found ₹60 lakh in Saini’s account.
MP, director-general of police (DGP), Vivek Johri said, “I can’t share much information as the case is under investigation and we are just helping UP police.”
The election commission said that the ECI’s database is safe and secure.
In a press communiqué, ECI said 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”.
“Data Entry Operator of one of the AERO offices had illegally shared his user id password with a private unauthorized service provider in Saharanpur’s Nakud town to print some Voter ID cards. Both these persons have been arrested,” the statement read.
