Taking a strong step against the malpractices, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has filed FIRs against eight unauthorised websites for misleading people pertaining to Aadhaar services.
This is the first instance of FIRs being lodged by the authority against dubious websites touting Aadhaar-related services, reported the BGR.
The sites are aadhaarupdate.com, aadhaarindia.com, pvcaadhaar.in, aadhaarprinters.com, geteaadhaar.com, downloadaadhaarcard.in, aadharcopy.in, and duplicateaadharcard.com. These websites were collecting Aadhaar number and enrolment details illegally from residents and promising Aadhaar services posing as entities authorised by UIDAI.
“We found that even after we ordered the shutting down of some unauthorised websites, some new websites had come up. This time, we have lodged a FIR against the erring websites,” said Ajay Bhushan Pandey, chief executive officer, UIDAI.
“The authority will continue to take stringent action against such sites and also asked the public to use UIDAI official website for all Aadhaar- related services. The Section 38 of Aadhaar Act deals with penalty for unauthorised access to the Central Identities Data Repository,” he added.
Earlier this year, UIDAI had got shut down 12 websites and 12 mobile apps available on the Google Play Store, for offering Aadhaar services illegally and charging excessive money from the public.
It had also instructed authorities to close another 26 such fraudulent and illegal websites and mobile applications. At present, any Aadhaar-related demographic information can only be shared following the procedures laid down in the Aadhaar Act, 2016.
More than 113 crore Aadhaar IDs have been generated in the country so far and Aadhaar authentications have crossed the 500 crore mark, while 100 crore e-KYCs have been done on the platform.
