FIR against The Tribune, Rachna Khaira over Aadhaar breach story: Sections under which they were booked

After The Tribune published a story highlighting the ease with which one could breach the Aadhaar data, the Delhi Crime Branch registered an FIR on a UIDAI official’s complaint against the publication and its reporter Rachna Khaira. According to PTI, on 5 January, a complaint was received from UIDAI deputy director BM Patnaik and the FIR was registered the same day.

The FIR was filed under Sections 419 (punishment for cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code.  Section 66 of the IT Act and Section 36/37 of the Aadhaar Act have also been applied against the accused.

The FIR stated that “an input was received from The Tribune that it purchased a service being offered by anonymous sellers over WhatsApp that provided unrestricted access to details of any of the Aadhaar numbers created in India. The FIR mentioned that the “correspondent” of The Tribune, posing as a buyer “Anamika”, had purchased the details. The FIR mentioned the names of Khaira as well as Anil Kumar, Sunil Kumar, and Raj, the three people Khaira reached out to purchase the Aadhaar data. However, the trio have not been shown as accused. The police said that they will be questioned. The Tribune report, which was widely shared on social media sites, claimed that it took just Rs 500 and 10 minutes for the newspaper to get an access through an “agent” to every detail of any individual submitted to the UIDAI, including name, address, postal code (PIN), photo, phone number and email. Firstpost received the copy of the FIR from 101 Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.

With inputs from agencies