The Cyberabad police on Thursday claimed to have busted a gang that was allegedly involved in stealing and selling confidential personal data of 16.8 crore citizens in the country, and sensitive data of government and important organisations.

The police arrested seven persons operating from Noida and Pune involved in theft, procuring and selling sensitive and confidential data.

The gang was also allegedly selling key data of defence and Army personnel to cyber criminals.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra announced the arrest of the accused individuals at a news conference. He said they would write to the Home Ministry for further inquiry in the data theft case.

The accused were found selling information relating to more than 140 categories of people including defence personnel, bank customers, energy sector consumers, NEET students, government employees, gas agencies, high net worth individuals, demat account holders.

Other categories include Bengaluru women consumer data, data of people who have applied for loans and insurance, credit card and debit card holders (of AXIS, HSBC and other banks), WhatsApp users, Facebook users, employees of IT companies and frequent flyers.

“When any individual calls the toll-free numbers of JustDial and ask for any sector or category related confidential data of individuals, their query is listed and sent to that category of service provider. Then these fraudsters call those clients/ fraudsters and send them samples. If the client agrees to purchase, they make payment and provide the data. This data is further used for committing crime,” said the commissioner.

The gang allegedly operated through registered and unregistered companies Data Mart Infotech, Global Data Arts and MS Digital Grow.

Sensitive data of 2.5 lakh defence personnel containing their ranks, email ids, place of posting, etc was found available those accused.

Data of 1.1 customers of six banks, 1.2 crore WhatsApp users, 17 lakh Facebook users, and 35,000 employees of the Delhi government was accessed by the fraudsters.

The accused had also accessed data of 98 lakh people who had applied for credit cards.

“The sensitive data can be used for unauthorised access to important organisations and institutions. The data of defence and government employees can be used for espionage, impersonation and commit serious offences which may jeopardise national security. The data related to PAN cards can be used to commit serious offences. The data is being used to commit a large number of cybercrimes by gaining confidence with victims by disclosing the information,” Stephen Ravindra said.

Key accused Kumar Nitish Bhushan had established a call centre in Noida and collected credit card databases from another accused, Muskan Hassan.

Pooja Pal and Susheel Thomar were working as tele-callers at Bhushan’s call centre.

Atul Pratap Singh had collected data of credit card holders and sold it on a profit basis through his company “Inspiree Digital”.

Muskan, who previously worked as a tele-caller at Atul’s office, established her company “MS Digital Grow”. She was selling data as a mediator. She had arranged the data from Atul and sold it to Bhushan.

Sandeep Pal had established Global Data Arts and used Justdial services and social media platforms to sell customers’ confidential data to fraudsters indulging in cyber offences.

Seventh accused Zia Ur Rehman was providing bulk messaging services for promotions and also shared the database to Atul and Bhushan.

Hyderabad police on Tuesday detained Syed Abdahu Quadri, alias Kashaf, under Preventive Detention (PD) Act for allegedly creating enmity between Hindus and Muslims.

On the orders of Hyderabad Police Commissioner, the 27-year-old was detained and sent to Central Prison Chanchalguda.

Kashaf, who calls himself a political strategist and a social and civil rights activist, had allegedly raised ‘sar tan se juda’ slogan during a recent protest against suspended BJP MLA Raja Singh over his derogatory comments about Prophet Mohammad.

The action against Kashaf came four days after police detained Raja Singh under PD Act and sent him to jail on the same charges.

According to police, Kashaf has been habitually posting provocative and inflammatory messages and videos in the social media through his Twitter account with an intention to promote enmity between Hindus and Muslims and cause breach of communal peace and disturb public tranquillity.

On the intervening night of August 22 and 23, he along with a number of supporters staged a ‘dharna’ in front of the Office of the Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad City at Basheerbagh in protest against posting of offensive video by Raja Singh.

Hundreds of young men from Muslim community from all over the city had descended at the office of the Commissioner of Police and joined the protest “dharna”.

“The detenu instigated the protestors to raise provocative and inflammatory slogans as ‘Naare Takbeer Allah Hu Akbar – Gustak-e-Rasool ki ek hi saza, sar tan se judaa (beheading is the only punishment for a person who disrespects the Prophet)’ and has created hatred and ill-will between the Muslim and Hindu religious communities in the limits of Hyderabad City Police Commissionerate, thereby adversely affecting the maintenance of public order,” a police statement said.

“Since this video and slogans went viral on national television channels and social media platforms, it created disturbance to public order throughout the country,” it added.

Police said the provocative and inciting slogans raised by the detenu during the protest programme has caught the attention of the gullible youth of the Muslim community which led to widespread protest programmes with violent incidents in different parts of the Hyderabad City. The details of the violent incidents were reported in the limits of Moghalpura, Shahinayathgunj, Bhavaninagar and Hussainialam Police Station in which the protestors have damaged the police vehicle, pelted stones on a police station, and attacked the hotel vendor and private cab driver.

According to police, Kashaf is involved in four offences in Hyderabad Police Commissionerate, among them 3 offences related to creating hatred between Muslims and Hindus. In 2020, he was also booked for uploading a video instigating the people to stage Million march and dharna at Indira Park, Hyderabad in protest against the CAA and NRC. He had uploaded a video on his twitter account and social media platformA instigating the people to stage dharna at Pragathi Bhavan (CM’s camp office), Hyderabad in protest against alleged demolition of Qutubshahi Masjid at Shameerpet and. In 2016, he was allegedly involved in an attack on then legislator and former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir.

Kashaf was arrested on August 25 and was produced before a magistrate. However, he was released on personal bond.

The action against him was taken hours after suspended BJP MLA Raja Singh Lodh was sent to jail under PD Act.

According to police, Raja Singh has been habitually delivering provocative and inflammatory speeches and driving a wedge between communities leading to public disorder.

A total of 101 criminal cases have been registered against him since 2004. He was involved in 18 communal offences in the limits of different police stations in Hyderabad.