In the Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan, a 21-year-old youth was arrested on Saturday (24th February) on allegations of unlawfully accessing and selling an enormous 4500 GB of confidential data that belonged to the governments, military and citizens of four nations: India, the US, China, and Ukraine on the dark web. The accused student had also stored the Aadhaar Card, PAN Card and other banking details of over 5 lakh people. Additionally, a load of data belonging to the Islamic States and the Taliban from the dark web was also recovered.
On Saturday, based on information, an Intelligence Bureau (IB) and district police team raided accused Amit Chand’s house in Srikaranpur’s 49F village and found 4,500 GB of data from several devices. The accused was arrested and is being questioned by the police and IB. The accused is pursuing a bachelor’s degree from a government college.
Reports say that his father Naseeb Chand who works in Dubai had no information about Amit’s criminal activities. The accused cyber-criminal operated his network from his residence in Srikaranpur.
Data belonging to the Islamic State and Taliban found
Srikaranpur Circle Officer (CO) Sudha Palwat, who is also investigating the case said that the accused is a self-taught hacker who learned the skills from watching YouTube tutorials and playing online games. He has been involved in the dark web business since 2018, however, he was found to be proactive in the last two to three months. The IB’s suspicion grew as they noticed such large data storage and its regular usage.
During the raid, the officials discovered over 90 million data belonging to US individuals, as well as a large amount of data belonging to the Islamic State and the Taliban on the dark web.
The police said that three mobile phones, one laptop, one computer, two pen drives, five hard disks, and four SSDs were confiscated from his room during the raid in addition, Rs 23,700 were also seized from the accused’s possession. Currently, the security agencies and the police are analysing the data recovered from the seized pen drives, hard disks, SSDs etc.
Accused received payments in cryptocurrency
During the cyber investigation, when Aadhaar card data, PAN card data, Indian Mahendra Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, USA Citizen, Ukraine, Manipur Police, US Army, and other data linked to the Government of India were found on the accused’s desktop the police investigated the matter and arrested him.
According to the police, the accused learned hacking skills on YouTube and used them to purchase confidential data on the dark web, which he then sold through his three Telegram channels. The police said that the accused received payments in cryptocurrency from his clients in exchange for the stolen data. The accused had developed an interest in the deep web after becoming an online gaming addict.
CO Palawat said that the accused person’s family were unaware of his deeds. The officer said that Amit Chand misused his skills after getting influenced by the dark web. Despite knowing that his activities were illegal, Amit continued it with an aspiration of becoming the biggest hacker in the future.
The police are looking into his clients and the precise quantity and nature of the data he sold. Accused Amit Chand has been charged under sections 419, 420, and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, as well as sections 43, 66B, 66C, and 67A of the IT Act.
