No theft of government data: AP cabinet


Amaravati: Dismissing data theft allegations made by the Telangana police, the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet yesterday decided to explore options for legal action against Cyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar over his comments on the investigation into the case.

At a press conference held in Hyderabad, Kalava Srinivasulu, the Information and Public Relations Minister, claimed that no government data had been stolen.

A day after the Telangana police alleged data breach by the TDP government through the ‘SevaMitra’ mobile application, the cabinet met yesterday and took a serious view of Sajjanar’s remarks against the ruling Telugu Desam Party.

After the Telangana Police on Saturday filed a case against a Hyderabad-based IT firm for stealing data of voters, Sajjanar had on Monday claimed that primary investigation revealed that the company got access of personal information and sensitive data of individuals related to Aadhaar, electoral roll, government schemes and voters information of various political parties. These can be misused for illegal purposes like deletion of voters from the electoral list.

The AP Cabinet, however, maintained that no data had been stolen and that the Telangana government was portraying the victim as the accused. The TRS, its police system and some officers within it are acting in an illegal manner, the Andhra Pradesh Minister alleged.

Briefing the media, Srinivasulu said, “If someone oversteps his brief as per Constitution, there is scope for legal action. Everyone has a limited role under the Constitution. How our future course of action should be and how we should expose them has been discussed in the Cabinet meeting. We will disclose the details soon,” he added.