The Telangana high court heard the petition filed by Director of IT Grids, R Ashok. The director moved court seeking the transfer of the case to Andhra Pradesh as he claimed that Telangana had no jurisdiction to file a FIR about a matter pertinent to Andhra Pradesh.
Telangana: The Telangana High Court heard a petition filed by the director of IT Grids contending that the Telangana police had no jurisdiction to file a FIR. The director, D Ashoke alleged that the case pertained to Andhra voters, not Telangana.
D Ashok, director of the firm IT Grids which is accused of providing IT services to Andhra Pradesh’s ruling Telugu Desam Party of stealing data to profile voters, moved the court contending the Telangana police.
The Telangana police have also registered FIRs against the company and its founder.
Following this, Ashok also petitioned the court to issue orders and transfer the cases to an appropriate authority in Andhra Pradesh. Ashok's counsel also argued that the cases being registered against his client were politically motivated.
The counsel also said that he would move an application to implead the Election Commission of India (ECI), Andhra Pradesh's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and the Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI) chairman in the case.
The Telangana police, however, argued that the office of IT Grids was in Hyderabad while the accused, Ashok, also resided in the city, which fell under its jurisdiction.
After hearing both sides, the high court bench posted the case for further hearing on next Wednesday.
The IT Grids firm came under the scanner after Telangana police filed a complaint accusing the firm of profiling voters and submitting it to the Telugu Desam Party.
The firm allegedly collated government-based data which included personal information of the citizens of Andhra Pradesh, without their consent.
The case was then transferred to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Telangana government.
The police, which already seized some hard-disks and electronic gadgets, also took possession of computers and some other material and sealed the office.
The police case and the raids on the Hyderabad-based company and the subsequent developments triggered a row between the Telugu states with the TDP government in Andhra Pradesh alleging that their party's data was stolen under a conspiracy by Telangana's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the YSRCP.
The Andhra Pradesh government also set up a SIT to probe data theft case against Telangana.
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