A husband in love literally went out of his way to prove the phrase, “I’d Do Anything for Love!”. Ironically, the act to impress his wife backfired landing him in jail.
The Cyber police of Mumbai recently arrested a 27-year-old UP-based civil engineer and a tech-savvy person, Raja Babu Shah for allegedly hacking into the city police’s passport verification branch.
Apparently, the accused’s wife aspired to move abroad for work for which she had applied for a passport. However, his wife did not get passport approval during the passport verification.
In order to fulfill his wife’s dream, Shah decided to hack into Mumbai Police’s data system and clear his wife’s police inquiry report so that her passport could get approved.
“There were no discrepancies in the applicant’s passport form and documents. However, after the initial investigation, the passport application was halted by the authorities,” said the police.
To avoid any suspicion, Shah approved the passport verification of three more women applicants from Antop Hill, Chembur, and Tilak Nagar in Mumbai using an internet protocol (IP) address (to access the passport verification system) assigned to a device in Noida.
“Shah’s wife works in Mumbai. She had applied for a passport. Shah illegally accessed the system and cleared three inquiries including his wife’s,” said the police, according to a Times of India report.
“Documents submitted by Shah’s wife were in order and there was no problem. But after the FIR, Shah’s wife’s passport has been stopped.”
Shah was arrested from a rented house in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad after the police traced the IP address to a device in Noida. He has now been remanded to judicial custody.
The incident took place on September 24, 2022 when the passport branch was officially shut.
The Mumbai Police crime branch has begun its investigation to find out how Shah managed to hack the system. Currently, the case has been handed over to the Southern Region Cyber Police Station.
The information about the hacking incident was received by DCP Balsingh Rajput along with his team comprising ACP Ramchandra Lotlikar, senior PI Kiran Jadhav and PSI Prakash Gawli who collected technical intelligence.
