To erase evidence, two officials destroyed CPUs: Police probe

Two officials of the Citizen Resources Information Department (CRID), who are accused in the inter-district Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) portal tampering case that came to light in Jhajjar some months ago, have admitted during police interrogation that they destroyed their central processing units (CPUs) and sold those as scrap.

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"One of the accused also burned his mobile phone while the other hid his device in a rented shop at a village in Nuh district. These devices were reportedly used to illegally alter details in family ID records. The officials’ primary motive in destroying the hardware was to eliminate evidence of their 'involvement'," claimed sources.

The sources further maintained that both the accused officials were posted in Nuh at the time of the offence. The tampering was allegedly carried out at the behest of another CRID official posted in Kurukshetra, who is said to have guided them about it during a wedding function held at Hansi in December 2024 — after the PPP portal-tampering racket was exposed in Jhajjar.

“The police later recovered the cellphone of one of the CRID officials hidden in a rented shop in Nuh. During inquiry, suspected WhatsApp chats were also found in the cellphones,” the sources added.

During the investigation, the police also recorded the statement of a man who operates a Common Service Centre (CSC) in the Badli area of Jhajjar district.

“The CSC operator revealed that two CRID officials posted in Jhajjar used to summon him to local hotels, where they asked him to alter family ID details. In return, they paid him for his services. The operator reportedly earned around Rs 16,000 for modifying the records of approximately 250 to 300 family IDs,” claimed sources.

The accused are facing charges of altering without authorisation family ID details, including changing the profession, lowering the reported family income, splitting family IDs and deleting the names of unwanted family member.

Currently, the case is being probed by the Cyber Cell of Jhajjar police with the help of Haryana Parivar Pehchan Authorities (HPPA). Seven persons, including several CRID officials, have been arrested in connection with the racket so far.