Govt committed to freedom of press: Law minister on UIDAI FIR

New Delhi: As outrage continues over the FIR filed by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on the journalist who exposed the Aadhaar data breach, the Union government on Monday said it was "committed" to the freedom of the press.

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted that the FIR was against unknown persons responsible for the leak of demographic details.

Prasad also said that a suggestion has been made to UIDAI to request The Tribune and its journalists to assist the police in further investigation.

Also read: Aadhaar breach: Journo says only tip of iceberg revealed, more to come

The Supreme Court, on the other hand, which is in the process of hearing a petition challenging the validity of Aadhaar, made it clear on Monday that politicians should "allow freedom of expression" during the hearing of another case.

The controversy started after The Tribune published an investigative report claiming that it received an offer to buy access into the Aadhaar database in exchange of only Rs 500 and was given login details to access the data.

The UIDAI denied the breach of Aadhaar data, but also said that it has given the "search facility" for grievance redressal to designated personnel and state government officials to help residents, that too only upon entering their Aadhaar number.

"The reported case appears to be an instance of misuse of the grievance redressal search facility," UIDAI had claimed, also maintaining that this allowed an access only to demographic details and the biometric details database continue to remain safe.