4 arrested for leaking call details

In a major infringement in right to privacy, the Delhi police has arrested four people belonging to a private detective agency for illegally obtaining call records data (CDRs) of approximately 4,000 individuals including politicians, businessmen and other eminent personalities. Police said that the agency used to provide CDR services to its clients for hefty sums. An official said that the data required by the agency’s clientele is used for snooping purposes.

According to a senior police officer, they have unearthed a gang of private detectives who were operating as pre-matrimonial investigation agencies, but were actually involved in leaking CDRs in nexus with a few policemen based in other states.

“We got information about such leakage and our team members, posed as potential customers, reached a matrimonial investigation company in Janakpuri area to buy CDRs. The company owner was found flouting the rules and preliminary enquiry shows that he was in touch with over 40 other private agencies and some policemen in Uttar Pradesh from where he was arranging the CDRs,” a senior officer of the crime branch involved in the investigation of the case said. The police has initiated action and is conducting raids to arrest the gang members.

“The gang was active for the past one-and-a-half years and has leaked over 4,000 CDRs. They used to give the numbers to two inspector level officers posted in Uttar Pradesh who accepted the CDRs illegally,” the officer explained.

To avoid exchange of emails, cops used to save the attached copy of CDRs as a draft in an email account. His accomplice in Delhi, who had access to the same email account, then downloaded the information and forwarded it to his clients.

“We are verifying the log of mails used by them to establish a link between the same. Once the private detective received the digital copy of the call records data, he used WhatsApp to communicate with his clients so that they are not tracked,” the officer added.

Investigators said that the private detectives were making money by selling the CDRs and the police officers involved were being paid Rs 6,000-15,000 for each record depending on the profile of the user.

The detective agencies were in touch with over three dozen other agencies and it is suspected that these details were leaked for illegal purposes like snooping and extortion. This is still being examined by the cops.

According to the process, an officer, no less than the rank of superintendent of police or above, is authorised to seek such details from telecom operators.