Telangana-Andhra data war resumes after poll break

After a lull due to the elections, the sensational data theft case involving an information technology company providing IT solutions to Andhra Pradesh’s ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is back in focus with the Telangana police making fresh revelations that the company had access to private data of not just the Telugu states but also other states like Punjab.

The scandal that broke last month reminiscent of the infamous Cambridge Analytica case that shook the world last year, brought Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to the confrontation with both the states accusing each other of stealing the data.

With Lok Sabha elections in both the states and simultaneous Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh completed in a single phase on April 11, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Telangana is back in the business, looking into fresh allegations against Hyderabad-based IT Grids (India) Private Limited, the company which was providing services to the TDP including development of a mobile app ‘SevaMitra’ for the party workers.

Even as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his TDP are waiting for the poll results, Telangana is going ahead with its probe into the case.

While Telangana police claimed that IT Grids had access to sensitive and confidential information of all voters of Andhra Pradesh and it misused the same, the TDP accused Telangana’s ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) of stealing its database built over last two decades, to help YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in the elections.

The case was put on backburner as both the states became busy with the elections. There was no progress in the investigations as Telangana SIT was going slow in its efforts to track down company’s CEO D Ashok, still who remained at large.

Fresh revelations

After the polls, the SIT intensified the investigations. According to its fresh revelations IT Grids had access to over two crore records of Aadhaar data belonging to Punjab in addition to the 7.82 crore records of Aadhaar data of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The SIT officials made the claim after decoding the data from the hard disks seized from the office of IT Grids in Hitec City, the hub of IT companies in Hyderabad. As many as 60 hard disks, pen drives, memory cards and other electronic gadgets were seized from IT Grids.

The investigators including forensic experts were reportedly surprised on finding records related to Punjab. They were trying to identify the motive behind storing Punjab data. They believe that the puzzle can be solved after the arrest of Ashok.

SIT had last month communicated to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that the app developed for TDP was suspected to be using stolen voter information along with Aadhaar data of the state governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for voter profiling, targeted campaigning and even deletion of votes.

The UIDAI on April 13 filed a complaint with Hyderabad against IT Grids accusing it of the theft of Aadhaar details of 7,82,21,397 Aadhaar card holders in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The UIDAI has told police that the structure and size of the database was similar to that of database that could have been originally owned by UIDAI.

The UIDAI requested the police to investigate as to for what purpose IT Grid collected, stored and used the Aadhaar numbers, and whether any provisions of Aadhaar Act have been violated in the process.

Based on the complaint by UIDAI, Madhapur Police registered a case under various Sections Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies Benefits and Services) Act 2016. The case was subsequently transferred to the SIT.

The UIDAI, however, refuted reports of breach of its servers. It clarified that its Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) and servers are completely safe and fully secure.

“Mere possession and storage of Aadhaar numbers of people, though maybe an offence under the Aadhaar Act under some circumstances, does not put the Aadhaar holders under any harm in any manner whatsoever because for assessing any Aadhaar based services, biometrics or One Time Password (OTP) is also required,” UIDAI later clarified in a statement.

The case so far

It was on March 2 that Cyberabad police registered a case against IT Grids, following a complaint filed by T. Lokeswara Reddy, said to be a data analyst based in Hyderabad. The police raided IT Grids, questioned few employees and seized some records.

The next day, a team from Andhra Pradesh police rushed to Hyderabad and tried to arrest Lokeswara Reddy from his house. He called the local police which prevented his arrest.

The same day IT Grids CEO D Ashok had approached Telangana High Court with a habeas corpus petition, seeking direction to Telangana police to produce four employees illegally detained. The police next day produced the employees, who denied that they were arrested.

The case sparked a war of words between the two states with Andhra Pradesh’s Naidu alleging that TRS resorted to theft of TDP data to pass on the same to YSRCP.

TRS Working President KT Rama Rao said Naidu and his son and IT Minister Nara Lokesh became jittery as they were caught red-handed while stealing confidential data to further the poll prospects of TDP.

Naidu questioned Telangana’s locus standi saying even if the data seized from the company relate to Andhra Pradesh citizens, Telangana had no right to proceed against it. “Who has given you the power to take action. We also have sovereign powers. The chief secretary of that state could have contacted chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh and bring the issue to his notice,” Naidu said.

Andhra’s tit-for-tat move

However, TRS took a serious view of the issue and constituted a nine-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Inspector General of Police Stephen Ravindra on March 6 for an indepth probe. Two cases registered by police against IT Grids were transferred to SIT.

In a tit-for-tat move, Andhra Pradesh government also formed a SIT comprising equal number of officials to probe theft of TDP data. This followed a case registered by Andhra Pradesh police on a complaint by TDP’s Andhra Pradesh unit chief K Kala Venkat Rao that a conspiracy was hatched between YSR Congress leaders and some senior police officials of Telangana to steal the data belonging to TDP. He also alleged that they conspired to engineer en-masse requests for deletion of names from the voters’ list.

Andhra Pradesh government dismissed the allegations of data leakage from government database, and assured the citizens that they need not be concerned about the security of their personal data.

It claimed that all safeguards were in place for data protection and said it was following all procedures data storage and protection in accordance with the prevailing Acts.

Naidu went to the extent of claiming that there was no protection to data assets in Hyderabad. He said Telangana with its ‘childish’ acts was damaging the brand image of the city which he built when he was the chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh between 1995 and 2004.