Prayagraj: The cyber crime police in Prayagraj have arrested two more members of a gang allegedly involved in illegally generating and updating Aadhaar cards by cloning and bypassing the security architecture of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). A large number of electronic devices and financial documents was also seized during the operation.Cyber police had arrested one person two days ago after the scam surfaced. On Friday, two more key members of the racket were arrested, and a large quantity of electronic devices and financial documents was seized.The accused were identified as 30-year-old Lavkush Yadav, a resident of Pratapgarh, and 22-year-old Parmatma Sharan alias Vivek, a native of Fatehpur who was residing in Kanpur Nagar.Police recovered three laptops, five hard drives, three solid-state drives (SSDs), three Android phones, an iPhone, four SIM cards, a fingerprint scanner, 19 cheque books, passbooks and ATM cards, three account registers, and several other electronic devices from their possession.A case has been registered under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Information Technology Act and the Aadhaar Act.Investigators revealed that the gang used the login credentials and PINs of authorised Aadhaar operators to gain unauthorised access to the UIDAI system. By employing cloning and bypass techniques along with remote access tools, the accused allegedly circumvented the security mechanism and carried out illegal Aadhaar enrolment and update operations.During interrogation, the accused disclosed that they had been associated with IPS E-Services Private Limited since 2020 and had operated franchise centres responsible for Aadhaar-related work at designated banks. However, after the company’s contracts with the banks ended nearly two years ago, the operators’ IDs became inactive.According to the police, Lavkush later established contact with a technical expert who specialised in bypassing Aadhaar authentication systems. The gang reportedly charged Rs 5,000 to activate an operator’s ID for each session and an additional Rs 250 for every Aadhaar enrolment or update. The IDs were shared through WhatsApp and activated remotely.Police are now investigating the involvement of other members of the network and tracing the scale of the operation.
