A 27-year-old civil engineer was recently arrested by the Cyber police of Mumbai crime branch for allegedly hacking into the system of the city police's passport verification branch. After hacking the system, the accused cleared the inquiry reports of three applicants, including his wife, reported The Times of India.
The accused, Raja Babu Shah wanted to impress his wife, who had planned to go abroad for which she had applied for the passport.
"Shah's wife works in Mumbai. She had applied for a passport. Shah illegally accessed the system and cleared three inquiries including his wife's," said police, according to the Times of India website.
The police inquiry for three passports of women from Antop Hill, Chembur and Tilak Nagar in Mumbai were cleared by the accused using an internet protocol (IP) address allotted to a device in Noida, the report stated.
DCP Balsingh Rajput along with his team comprising ACP Ramchandra Lotlikar, senior PI Kiran Jadhav and PSI Prakash Gawli collected technical intelligence and arrested the accused, Raja Babu Shah from a rented house in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad.
The Regional Passport Office sends all files to the city police's special branch which asks the local police for an applicant's report and based on the information gathered, a decision is taken and conveyed to the passport office.
"In this case, the login ID and password, allotted by the ministry of external affairs, of an officer who is a clearing authority, was hacked," the Times of India report stated.
The incident took place on September 24 last year which was a holiday and the passport branch of the police was shut.
A case was registered at the Azad Maidan police station for forgery of valuable security, will, identity theft, punishment for cheating by using computer resources under various sections of IPC and Information Technology Act, the report further stated.