Telangana Police intensify probe into data theft case against IT Grids

Hyderabad, March 5 (IANS) The Telangana Police on Tuesday intensified investigations into data theft allegations against IT Grids India Pvt Ltd, with four teams on the lookout for its Chief Executive Officer D. Ashok.

Cyberabad police officers investigating the case conducted further searches at the office of the IT firm in Madhapur, the IT hub here.

Police sources said Ashok, the main suspect, is suspected to be in Andhra Pradesh.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar's had asked Ashok on Monday to surrender along with the data and other material. However, he did not appear before the investigators. 

A case against IT Grids, which provides IT services to Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), was filed on March 2 at Madhapur police station following a complaint by whistleblower T. Lokeswara Reddy.

The complainant alleged that the company used confidential data for 'Sevamitra', an app for TDP cadres for voter profiling, so that 'anti-TDP' voters can be deleted from voter list.

Sajjanar said they were investigating how the company got illegal access to private data of citizens of Andhra Pradesh. 

Police had seized electronic gadgets, hard discs, mobile phones, documents and other material from their office.

A notice has been issued to Amazon Web Services for production of database relating to application and other data. "We are also writing to UIDAI and Election Commission for more details," the police officer said.

Meanwhile, the two states continue to spar over the case. TDP and Telangana's ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) traded allegations against each other.

The TDP government argued that Telangana Police have no power to investigate a case relating to Andhra Pradesh data while TRS defended the action against IT Grids saying the complaint was lodged in Hyderabad and the company was also based in the city.

TRS Working President K.T. Rama Rao on Tuesday took to Twitter to launch a fresh attack on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

"As per reports, there is enough evidence that a private organisation got hold of confidential data of 3.5 crore AP citizens without any consent of citizens. Is that why AP CM is getting jittery when Telangana Police are investigating the data theft case?," asked Rama Rao. 

"By obstructing Telangana Police and filing false petitions in courts, AP CM is only indirectly confirming his role in leaking personal information of crores of AP citizens to a private organisation," said the TRS leader.