Rajasthan youth held for allegedly selling govt, citizen’s data on dark web

During the raid, the team found over 90 million data belonging to US citizens and a load of data belonging to the Islamic States and the Taliban from the dark web

Jaipur: A 21-year-old man in Rajasthan’s Sriganganagar district was arrested on Saturday for allegedly illegally hacking and selling a load of confidential data belonging to the governments and as well as people of four countries, including India, the United States of America, China, and Ukraine, officials familiar with the matter said.

(Representative Photo)

The youth, identified as Amit Chand, a resident of Srikaranpur, was arrested following a raid by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), said police.

“The man is a self-taught hacker who developed the skill by watching YouTube videos and playing online games. He was engaged in this dark web business since 2018 but was found being proactive in the last two to three months,” said the Srikaranpur circle officer (CO) Sudha Palwat who is also investigating the case.

On Saturday, a team of the IB and the district police, based on intel, conducted a raid at Chand’s residence in Srikaranpur’s 49F village and found 4,500 GB of data from multiple devices.

During the raid, the team found over 90 million data belonging to US citizens and a load of data belonging to the Islamic States and the Taliban from the dark web, said Palwat.

Three mobile phones, one laptop, one computer, two pen drives, five hard disks and four SSDs, were seized from his room in the raid, said police.

“He used to learn hacking tricks from YouTube, applying them on the dark web to purchase confidential data and later sell them through his three Telegram channels,” the CO added.

Palwat said that his desktop was also filled with Adhar cards, PAN cards, and banking details belonging to over 500,000 people, apart from that of the Indian Army, US Army and the Indian Police.

The accused received the money through cryptocurrency from his clients and in exchange for these data, said police.

According to the police, Chand is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in a local government college and belongs to a very simple family.

“His parents were completely unaware of his deed. He used his curious mind and talent incorrectly after being influenced by the world of the dark web. Despite knowing that it is a crime, he had been committing it with an aspiration to become the most prominent hacker in the future,” said Palwat.

The police are probing his clients to whom he sold the data and the exact amount and nature of the data, she said, adding that Chand has been booked under sections 419, 420, and 120B of the Indian Penal Code and also sections 43, 66B, 66C, and 67A of the IT Act.