A Hyderabad-based 21-year-old Chartered Accountancy student allegedly hacked the Income-Tax returns account of corporate honcho Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, but has not misused the hacked data, the police said on Friday. A crime branch officer said that since the accused has cooperated in the investigation, and the police has almost completed the probe, her arrest is unlikely till the chargesheet is filed.
The Cyber Crime Investigation Cell (CCIC) of Mumbai crime branch, in the first week of this month, booked a CA student (name not revealed) under various sections of the Information Technology Act for hacking into Ambani’s e-filing of IT returns account in June.
The accused, who is doing articleship at her uncle Manoj Daga’s Hyderabad-based tax consultancy firm, accessed the details of Mr Ambani’s tax returns from previous years and his PAN card number. The police probe revealed that the accused used the business tycoon’s PAN card number (obtained from the I-T Department website by providing details such as his mother’s name, his birth date, etc.) to change the password of his e-account on the I-T website.
The matter came to light when Nilesh Doshi, who looks after Mr Ambani’s individual tax details, approached the Mumbai crime branch and informed that the I-T Department twice (in the months of June and July) confirmed with him that the password of Mr Ambani’s I-T account had been changed as requested, despite no such requests being made to the department.
The police then swung into action and after a probe, traced the hacking to a tax consultancy firm Manoj Daga & Company in Chikkadpally. “We reached the firm on September 10 and seized the server on which folders containing details of Mr Ambani’s I-T returns were saved. We seized the hard disk and other relevant electronic evidence,” said police inspector Mukund Pawar of CCIC.
“We questioned the accused girl, who was the only one who had access to the server in the absence of her uncle, and she confessed to hacking the account. She claimed that she just wanted to know the salary of one of the country’s top billionaires, how much money he paid as tax, etc.,” Mr Pawar said.
“Since the accused is booked under bailable sections, and has cooperated in the investigation, , her arrest is unlikely till the chargesheet is filed, but our seniors will take the final call,”Mr Pawar said.