TWO MONTHS after central intelligence agencies found that personal details of more than 81 crore Indians were leaked from the data bank of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and put on sale on the dark web, Delhi Police has arrested four men from three states.
During questioning, the suspects claimed to have also stolen data of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) — Pakistan’s counterpart. A senior officer in a central agency said that Delhi Police took suo motu cognizance of the data leak earlier this month and registered an FIR.
“Last week, four men — a B.Tech degree holder from Odisha, two school dropouts from Haryana and one from Jhansi — were arrested and produced before a Delhi court which remanded them in seven days police custody,” the officer said.
“The arrested persons told investigators during initial questioning that they met on a gaming platform around three years ago and became friends. They then decided to earn quick money,” the officer said.
The breach was detected in October after intelligence officers came across the data — including Aadhaar and passport records — on the dark web.