Bangalore: On Wednesday, the High Grounds Police filed a FIR against the officials from Qarth Technologies for reportedly accessing information from the Unique Identification Authority of India website.
Qarth Technologies is a Private Limited Company which is owned by OLA and has been taken to task by the police for allegedly misusing Aadhaar information. OLA acquired Qarth Technologies in the year 2016. The company offers multi bank Immediate Payment Service.
The High Grounds police registered the FIR only after Ashok Lenin, Deputy Director, UIDAI Regional Office of Bangalore filed a complaint against the company.
The FIR is registered under the sections 37 and 38 of Aadhar Act 2016, sections 65 and 66 of IT Act of 2000 and sections 120 B, 468 and 271 of the Indian Penal Code (document or electronic record forged.) On Thursday, the case was transferred to the Cyber Crime Police.
Lenin said in his complaint, “Qarth workers have developed an app and accessed details on Aadhaar website without authentication and provided the same as e-KYC details. The Data theft started on January 1 and went on until July 26. The accused has joined hands with miscreants in leaking the Aadhaar information and illegally using the same.”
Section 37 of the Act states that “whoever, intentionally discloses, transmits, copies or otherwise disseminates any identity information collected in the course of enrollment or authentication to any person not authorized under this Act or regulations made under or in contravention of any agreement or arrangement entered into pursuant to the provisions of this Act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with a fine which may extend to ten thousand rupees or, in the case of a company, with a fine which may extend to one lakh rupees or with both.”
Section 38, which has also been filed against the company refers to the penalty for unauthorized access to the Central Identities Data Repository. It states that the accused will be imprisoned for 3 years. In addition to it, the offender will be asked to pay a fine which will not be less than ten lakh rupees.
Sections 65 and 66 of IT Act of 2000 which has been registered against the company refers to Tampering with computer source documents and Hacking with computer system for which the offender will be punishable upto 3 years.
