Challan in cheating, forgery case points to Aadhaar data breach

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 16

A chargesheet filed by the police in a case of cheating and forgery has revealed Aadhaar data breach. The Chandigarh Police arrested eight persons in January for buying costly mobile phones on loan using forged ID proofs, including PAN cards and Aadhaar cards.

The police report in the chargesheet has revealed that the accused accessed details of customers from a finance company, forged Aadhaar cards while only replacing the photograph with theirs. This way, the instalment amount of the loan was deducted from the Aadhaar linked bank accounts. Also, two of the accused were former bank employees and got the required bank documents.

The 775-page challan has 37 witnesses and eight accused, including a woman. They have been identified as Ashish (25), Vishal Sehegal (23), Shakti Singh (29), Sanjeev Kumar (44), Amit Kumar Katwal (31), Kapil Dhingra (24), Baldev Singh (38) and Rajjo (45). They have been charged under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120B of the IPC.

The accused include former bankers and former employees of Bajaj Finance Company. Thus, they provided details of customers, which were used by one of the accused to print fake Aadhaar and PAN cards after replacing the photographs. Thus, they used these ID proofs to buy mobile phones on EMI that cost between Rs 65,000 and Rs 70,000. As Aadhaar and PAN cards were linked to bank accounts of real customers, instalments were deducted from their accounts. In the meantime, the accused would further sell the mobile phones and earn profit.

On January 21, the crime branch had arrested seven accused and recovered four cellphones from them which they had got financed on fake Aadhaar and PAN cards. The police claimed that the accused were held when they were going to sell mobile phones at the Sector 22 mobile market at cheaper rates.

Modus operandi

The accused include former bankers and former employees of Bajaj Finance Company. Thus, they provided details of customers, which were used by one of the accused to print fake Aadhaar and PAN cards after replacing the photographs. Thus, they used these ID proofs to buy mobile phones on EMI that cost between Rs 65,000 and Rs 70,000. As Aadhaar and PAN cards were linked to bank accounts of real customers, instalments were deducted from their accounts.