Indian Express

Cop held for hacking email

Express news service Posted online: Sat Feb 16 2013, 00:55 hrs
New Delhi : A 32-year-old Delhi Police constable was arrested on Thursday for making an unauthorised attempt to access call detail records (CDR) of BJP leader Arun Jaitley. Investigators suspect that the accused, posted at the Parliament street police station, may have procured the call details of other persons as well. Constable Arvind Dabas has been booked under Section 66 of the IT Act.

Police said Dabas had reportedly sent an email to Airtel seeking call detail records of Jaitley using the official email ID of Bhoop Singh, ACP (Operations) of New Delhi district, on January 17.

Dabas was reportedly posted with the Special Staff of New Delhi district earlier and was sent to the New Delhi district police lines in March 2011, on disciplinary grounds. He is a resident of Guru Tegh Bahadur Enclave in Northeast Delhi and also runs a motor workshop in Sector-57, Noida. He was on leave since March 5, 2012.

During investigations, police found that Dabas was in touch with two Dehradun-based political leaders for the past several days and he may have been paid for this task. Sources said Dabas had managed to get the password of Bhoop Singh’s email ID and sent a formal request to Airtel. It was only after the nodal officer of Airtel called back to verify the authenticity of the request that the conspiracy was unearthed.

Investigators have recovered the hard disk of his laptop, which has been sent for forensic examination.

Only an officer of the rank of an ACP or above is authorised to put in a request seeking CDRs. No senior officer of the Delhi Police was aware of such a request when the telecom company contacted them.