Data Theft: SIT Chief Says Ashok Dakavaram Will Be Tracked Down, Be It Amaravati or America  

Hyderabad: The SIT probe being conducted by the Telangana police has gathered pace, according to SIT chief, Stephen Ravindra. While addressing a press meet here on Thursday, Ravindra said that IT Grids India had also accessed data related to the citizens of Telangana. All aspects of the case would be thoroughly probed, he said.

A Look out Circular (LOC) has also been issued against the owner of the company, Ashok Dakavaram. He will be brought to book and tracked down wherever he is, be it Amaravati or America, the SIT chief said. All are equal in the eyes of the law and the guilty will be punished, Ravindra added. He further said that the Telangana police sought to conduct the investigation in a transparent manner.

The SIT official told media persons that they were also investigating the possibility of others apart from IT Grids and Bluefrog Mobile Technologies being involved in the data theft conspiracy. He observed that with data related to Telangana citizens having been compromised, several suspicions arose and the case got murkier. The team of cyber experts and police officials would carry out a thorough investigation in all aspects of the case to bring out the facts and circumstances leading to commission of crime, Ravindra said.

The new SIT is headed by IG Stephen Ravindra along with Kamareddy SP N Swetha, Cyberabad Cybercrimes DCP Rohini Priyadarshini, Narayanpet DSP G Sridhar, Madhapur ACP N Shyam Prasad Rao, Cyberabad Cybercrime ACP Ch Y Srinivas, Hyderabad CCS Inspector B Ramesh and Hyderabad Cybercrime Inspector G Venkat Rami Reddy.

Meanwhile an LOC against Dakavaram Ashok, CEO of IT Grids India Pvt Ltd, by the Ministry of Home Affairs on a request from Cyberabad Police was issued and this became necessary to prevent him from fleeing the country all airports have been alerted.

Four teams had earlier been formed to locate Ashok after he failed to appear before the police despite being summoned as part of the investigation in the case.

It is believed that Ashok Dakavaram, the CEO of IT Grids India Private Limited, is in a safe location in the AP capital region area. The police also say that he could also be in possession hard disks which could contain vital clues in the case.

According to senior police officials, notices were sent and they were awaiting a response from Amazon Web Services and Google Play Store with whom the database is said to have been stored seeking further information.

The police have also initiated the process of writing to the Andhra Pradesh government, Unique Identification Authority of India, Election Commission and Registrar of Companies for more details.

IT Grids has been accused of 'theft of data' of voters through Seva Mitra a mobile app which it had developed and was used by the ruling TDP in AP. Preliminary investigation revealed that the company got illegal access to various personal and sensitive data of individuals such as Aadhaar, electoral rolls and government schemes and voters information related to various political parties, which could have been misused for illegal purposes. Now with Stephen Ravindra saying that the data of Telangana citizens could also have been compromised, the case assumes wider ramifications.