16 lakh citizens’ data in private company’s hand, police tell HC

The Transaction Analysts India Private Limited, against whom the Hyderabad police’s Detective department had issued a First Information Report, is ‘unlawfully withholding sensitive data relating to nearly 16 lakh citizens, causing grave prejudice to public interest and seriously affecting the smooth functioning of essential government digital services’, the police said in a counter affidavit filed in the Telangana High Court.

DD Assistant Commissioner of Police A. Ram Reddy, who filed the affidavit in a criminal petition filed by the company and three others seeking to quash the FIR and stall all further proceedings, including arrest of the accused, said such deliberate withholding of crucial government data amounted to fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of public administration. According to the ACP, a FIR under sections 316 (2), 318 (4) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sections 66-C, 70 and 72 and 43 read with 66 of the Information Technology Act was issued against TAPL based on a complaint lodged by the office of the Commissioner, Electronic Services Delivery (ESD)/Meeseva.

The ACP maintained that Meeseva services engaged TAPL in 2017 to develop and maintain the State-owned ’T-Wallet’ platform. As per the agreement, the company was obliged to transfer complete control of data, source code, systems, credentials and related infrastructure to the government upon expiry of the agreement on May 31 of 2025. Despite repeated communications, the said company failed to do so after the said date. The ACP claimed that TAPL unlawfully retained and misused government-owned data, obstructed the transition process to the newly appointed agency.

While the TAPL was named as the first accused in the FIR, Katuri Srinivas Rao, chief executive officer of the company, M. Srinivasulu, chief of projects and P. Kiran Kumar, project manager, were named as the second, third and fourth accused. The third accused was arrested on April 25. The ACP said in the affidavit that, since the probe was in a nascent stage, the accused needed to be thoroughly examined. He said the accused company may misuse the data of 16 lakh citizens/users for some illegal purposes, and hence the criminal petition filed by the company and the other three accused should be dismissed.