UIDAI takes note of close to 100 Aadhaar-related FIRS

KANPUR: As many as 50 hoardings with photographs of those who allegedly took part in the June 3 violence in Kanpur will be put up in several areas for identification and subsequent arrests, police commissioner Vijay Singh Meena said on Sunday.

Police have gathered images of the alleged accused through several videos of the incident, including those captured on CCTV, and will soon put them up in hoardings under six police stations of Kanpur Nagar for identification, Meena said.

“We are in the process of collating the images and they will be displayed everywhere. We want to send out a strong message. These rioters will be identified and their properties will be seized,” Meena said.

If required, more hoardings with photographs of such accused will be put up in other parts of the city, police officials familiar with the matter said.

It will be for the third time in Kanpur when hoardings with photographs of those accused of violence would be put up at important locations. Such hoardings were first put up in Sisamau in 2015, following the violence during a “Paiki” procession. A similar move was also made during the protests against the then Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019.

In March 2020, Allahabad high court had directed the district magistrate and police commissioner to remove the hoardings. The court observed that the state’s action amounted to “violation of Article 21 of Constitution” and “amounts to unwarranted interference in the privacy of people”. Subsequently, the Supreme Court had questioned the Uttar Pradesh government for putting on display the personal details of alleged protesters to “name and shame them”. The top court had asked the state government under which it had publicly pasted the posters of the protesters.

At least 40 people, including 20 police personnel, were injured in Friday’s clashes, in Pared, Nai Sadak and Yateemkhana areas, which erupted after some people called for closure of shops as part of protest over alleged objectionable remarks made against Prophet Mohammed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma. Sharma was suspended by the party on Sunday.

Tension erupted as protesters called for a bandh and forced closure of shops owned by Hindus in Pared locality of the district. The violence soon spilled to different localities, including Beconganj, Anwarganj and Moolgunj, as protesters pelted stones, fired shots and lobbed petrol bombs at police who in return used batons to disperse the mob.

With five more arrests on Sunday, 29 people have been held so far and over 1,000 people (of which 36 are named accused) have been booked in connection with the violence. Among those arrested is Hayat Zafar Hashmi, chief of Maulana Mohammed Ali Jauhar Fans Association, a local social group.

Hashmi is suspected to be the mastermind of the violence. Hashmi, along with Mohd Javed Khan, Mohd Rahil and Mohd Sufiyan, also linked with the association, are believed to be the key conspirators in the case, police said. All were arrested on Saturday and sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Sunday. Commissioner Meena on Saturday had said that the accused will be booked under the stringent National Security Act and the Gangster Act. Police may consider seizing or demolishing properties of the people involved in the violence, additional director general (law and order) Prashant Kumar had said.

Hashmi’s family has claimed he is innocent and had no role in the violence.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party district unit secretary Nizam Quraishi is among 36 named accused in the case.

Quraishi, who is absconding, was expelled from the party on Sunday after purported videos showed him in Nai Sadak area on Sunday.

“All his appeals, to my knowledge, were made under the banner of Jamiatul Quraishi,” SP district unit president Dr Imran Idris said.

LUCKNOW: Five policemen were on Saturday suspended and booked for allegedly torturing a 20-year-old man in custody in Budaun district of Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Sunday.

The action against a sub-inspector and four constables of Kakrala police outpost under Alapur police station came after the family of the victim, Rehan, who was held by police on suspicion of cattle theft on May 2, alleged on Friday that he was given electric shocks and a wooden stick was inserted in his genitals in custody. His family also alleged that he was kept in custody for several hours and released on the same day after they paid a bribe of ₹5,000 to the cops, they said.

“On Friday, his condition deteriorated and he was taken to a hospital in Bulandshahr,” a family member said.

Budaun ASP (city) Praveen Singh Chauhan said Dataganj circle officer Prem Kumar Thapa, who was asked to probe the case, submitted his report on Saturday, saying the allegations of the family were found to be true. An FIR under relevant sections for illegal confinement and torturing of Indian Penal Code under Prevention of Corruption Act have been registered.

NEW DELHI: Although nearly a hundred police complaints related to Aadhaar numbers between 2018 and 2021 have been brought to the notice of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) by law enforcement agencies, a much larger number of cases remain unreported, according to officials familiar with the matter.

The cases include Aadhaar numbers being compromised, Pakistani citizens acquiring the unique numbers meant only for residents in India, authentication frauds, forgery, unauthorized access and tampering, they said.

“This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg,” an official said. “For every FIR (first information report) filed, there will be hundreds of cases that have not been reported.”

The authority does not typically file police complaints but can be approached for help if law keepers need it to facilitate investigations.

“Aadhaar is an identity and, hence, there have to be stricter safeguards to ensure its security,” an official said, seeking anonymity. “This is a question of national security.”

The statutory agency did not immediately respond to queries.

Aadhaar is a 12-digit number that links the biometric data of an individual, creating a unique identity. Aadhaar is linked to a person’s bank details, phone number, government schemes and other financial services.

The security and vulnerability of Aadhaar has been a critical issue for the government. There have been reports of Aadhaar numbers being compromised.

The Union government has, however, maintained that the Aadhaar system has never been breached.

“I would like to convey to this House that the data of the UIDAI is completely safe. We do six crore authentications everyday and till now… we have done 1,500 crore authentications of Aadhaar,” former electronics and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Parliament earlier.

There have been cases of attempted unauthorised access to the authentication system, the ministry under which UIDAI operates said on March 23.

“In all such cases, FIRS have been lodged for unauthorized authentication cases. UIDAI has a strong and rigorous process of identifying such types of cases and ensuring that these are reported to the concerned law enforcement agencies for necessary action,” the ministry said.

A total of 4,088 such cases have been detected, according to data maintained by the National Payments Corporation of India. The number rose sharply from 497 in 2019-20 to 1,200 in 2020-21, and 2,391 in 2021-22. The transaction counts rose from 1,370 to 3,755, and 8,739 respectively.

A total of ₹101 million may have been siphoned off using the method.

SECURITY AND VULNERABILITY OF AADHAAR HAS BEEN A CRITICAL ISSUE FOR THE GOVERNMENT

READ: Can’t use Aadhaar for forensic matches, UIDAI tells HC