Aadhaar Seva Kendra staff with access to data of thousands of visitors in cyber crime net
Telegraph | 10 April 2025
One of the two persons, arrested from Haryana in connection with a cyber fraud allegedly headed by a bank manager, used to work in an Aadhaar Seva Kendra, CID sleuths said.
He had access to the database of thousands of people who visited the centre.
While investigating the complaint of a Chandernagore resident, officers of the cyber police of the state CID found that multiple fraudulent Aadhaar cards were used to open shell companies and associated bank accounts.
The state CID arrested Himanshu Solanki, 32 and Praveen Kumar, 29, from Faridabad in Haryana on Sunday for allegedly creating fake documents, including Aadhaar and PAN cards and also creating fake companies using the fraudulent documents.
“Praveen Kumar himself had tweaked his name to generate multiple Aadhaar cards. One identifies him as Praveen Kumar, one as Pratap Kumar and a third as Paresh Kumar. All have the same Aadhaar number but carry different names,” said an officer.
CID sleuths suspect that there are more people involved in the gang, which has been manipulating Aadhaar details of the people who come to visit Aadhaar Seva Kendras.
“It is best to mask your Aadhaar card so that even if you use a photocopy, the number will not be visible to anyone else,” said a CID officer.
The police also advised linking the Aadhaar to its holder’s mobile number so that an alert can be generated to that number if anyone tries to carry out any fraudulent activity related to his or her Aadhaar number.
CID officers said, in this case the accused cheated the complainant of ₹43 lakh by coaxing him to invest in cryptocurrency. He had come across the advertisement of the investment scheme on social media.
Later during the investigation, the police found that the proceeds of the crime went to the bank accounts of the branch manager of a nationalised bank and his wife, based in Murshidabad.
The branch manager has already been arrested. He is in police custody.