SIT Intensifies Search Operations For IT Grids Ashok Dakavaram

Hyderabad/Amaravati: Telangana Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to investigate the IT Girds Data Theft Case has intensified its search for Ashok Dakavaram. Ashok who is the CEO if IT Grids Company has been absconding since February 27 and his phone was switched off since them. It is believed that he is hiding somewhere either in Vijayawada, Nellore, or Guntur districts.

Ashok has not responded to any of the three Notices sent to his residence till date and the SIT Chief IG Stephen Ravindra had earlier said that a Look out Circular (LOC) was issued against Ashok Dakavaram and paper notifications about his whereabouts were issued. Special teams were sent to Andhra Pradesh (AP), Karnataka and two other states, in search of the CEO who is still absconding.

Ashok Dakavaram is the main accused in 'theft of voters data' through Seva Mitra, a mobile app which IT Grids had developed, and was used by the ruling Telugu Desam Party (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, government schemes and voters information related to various political parties, which could have been misused for illegal purposes.

More than 60 hard discs, pen drives memory cards were seized in the raids conducted in the IT Grids Company premises in Madhapur area at Hyderabad. Most of the data was deleted from the disks, but the SIT sent 40 hard disks to the Forensic Science Labs (FSL) for retrieval of data. TSFSL in its preliminary report stated that the seized hard disks contained a database of a large number of records pertaining to Aadhaar number in a particular structural database. Based on the TSFSL report, UIDAI filed a complaint with police that was transferred to the SIT. Upon further examination of the digital evidence, it was found that 7,82,21,397 records of Aadhaar data belonging to people of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were used by IT Grids India for "Seva Mitra" application of the TDP, the UIDAI said in its complaint.

With the UIDAI filing a complaint the SIT has further intensified its investigations in the data theft case. Further examination of the computer peripherals seized could also hold key to vital information pertaining to the electorates data, is what senior police officials are saying.

Also Read: Data Theft Case: UIDAI Complaint Transferred To Telangana SIT