Bengaluru Police have arrested an engineer named Abhinav Srivastava over allegations that he and his company were accessing Aadhaar data illegally.
The arrest comes about a week after police received a complaint against Qarth Technologies, a subsidiary of ride-hailing app Ola, from Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Deputy Director Ashok Lenin.
Here are 10 things to know about Abhinav Srivastava and why he is currently in the police net:
1. Srivastava is an MSc from IIT-Kharagpur, where he had studied Industrial Chemistry.
2. He hails from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and currently lived in Yesvanthapura in Bengaluru.
3. According to a police statement, Srivastava had opened Qarth Technologies in 2012, but it was shut down in 2015 due to lack of funds. Ola acquired it in 2016.
4. Police say Srivastava had developed a mobile app for Aadhaar e-KYC [Know Your Customer] for Android in January 2017, which illegally accessed Aadhaar data.
5. Srivastava had earned Rs 40,000 through advertisements from the app before it was shut due to the complaint from UIDAI.
6. Police say Srivastava accessed Aadhaar data on the NIC servers through the "e-Hospital" application and its server.
7. Srivastava was arrested on Tuesday, August 1, from Koramangala area of Bengaluru.
8. Police recovered a CPU, four laptops, a tablet, four mobile phones, six pen drives and some other accessories — with a total worth of Rs 2.25 lakh — from Srivastava.
9. Police said Srivastava has a keen interest in the Android operating system, its apps and their development. He has developed at least four other apps.
10. Although the investigators say that Srivastava is a software development engineer at the Ola office in Koramangala, the ride-hailing company has denied any connection. "The company has nothing to do with the arrest nor did it authorise the person to develop the app," it has said.
Bonus: If Srivastava is found guilty under sections of the Aadhaar Act that deal with illegal access of Aadhaar data, he could be sentenced to three years in prison!
