The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Sunday, September 10, arrested ten people in the state for making fake Aadhaar cards.

Among the ten people arrested was the mastermind of the gang, Saurabh Singh, who is from Kanpur. He was arrested on September 10 from World Bank Colony in Barra locality.

The STF swung into action after the deputy director of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) registered a police complaint in Lucknow. The same was confirmed to The Logical Indian by SP Special Task Force Lucknow, Mr Amit Pathak.

During the raid, the STF officials seized the papers with the fake fingerprints and retina scans on them. The fingerprints and retina scans on the fake Aadhaar cards were reportedly of the members of the gang. They used this method to complete the biometric parameters.

Police have also recovered fingerprint scanners, rubber stamps, iris scanners, laptops, printing materials and GPS devices from the gang.

As reported by NDTV, police say that they have found the Information Security Policy mandated by UIDAI was being broken at many levels, including enrollment agencies, supervisors, registrars, operators and verifiers. The whole process of Aadhaar enrollment will now be reportedly inspected for security.

Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identity number issued to all Indian residents based on their biometric and demographic data. The data is collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a statutory authority established on 12 July 2016 by the Government of India, under the provisions of the Aadhaar Act 2016. Aadhaar is the world’s largest biometric ID system, with over 1.1 billion enrolled members as of 28 February 2017.

More than 98% of adults in India have enrolled in the Aadhaar scheme. However, of the 23.4 crore Indians who did not have an Aadhaar number in 2016 (21.7 crore) – more than 90% – were children. Currently, over 99% of Indians aged 18 and above have the Unique Identification Number (UID).

The Logical Indian wishes to reiterate its stance that Aadhaar being a goldmine of information, its getting into the wrong hands will have catastrophic consequences.

There should be strict action taken against those responsible for breaches or ponzi schemes. And the government should ensure that such violations of privacy and of the Aadhaar Act do not take place in the future.

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