Mira-Bhayandar: Three months after they hacked into the system of a Mira Road-based IT management solution and software development company and stole valuable client data, the Naya Nagar police arrested three former employees of the firm for their involvement in the crime.

According to the police the company headed by Raj Singh had developed Magic Locker- a Google certified application which not only enabled mobile phone retailers in managing their financed customers but also provided an option to instantly lock the screen if the equated monthly instalments (EMI) were not paid on time.

In 2021, Singh employed the three accused including-Chandresh Bhartiya as technical head, Manoj Maurya and Himanshu Singh as assistant technicians. As a part of the company’s expansion plan, a branch was established in Varanasi headed by Bhartiya with Maurya and Singh as assistant technicians.

The trio who apparently gained access to the company’s server, gradually quit their jobs in 2023. However, Singh was shocked when the system automatically went into hard reset (format) mode in July, 2023 leading to the deletion of sensitive data including-photos, videos, contact list, bank details, important documents from the mobile phones of nearly 3.50 lakh users.

The incident significantly impacted the firm which had to compensate the losses by reimbursing more than Rs 1.51 crore. The firm installed a new software to detect any type of fresh intrusions, following which some internal protocol (IP) addresses were traced and the suspected role of the former employees in the data theft came to light.

“Our team from the Naya Nagar police station meticulously traced the digital footprints left behind by the hackers and managed to apprehend them. Prima facie it appears to be an offence triggered due to personal rivalry, however investigations were on to check if they were involved in similar data hacking or other illegal activities.” said DCP (crime)-Prakash Gaikwad.

While Maurya and Himanshu were arrested from Varanasi, Bhartiya was held in Virar by the team under the supervision of senior police inspector- Amar Jagdale. The laptops and mobile phones which were used to hack into the system have been recovered from the possession of the trio who have been booked under the relevant sections of the IPC and the Information Technology Act.