Youth who 'broke' into Airtel's system refused bail

New Delhi, July 5 (UNI) A city court today rejected the bail plea of the youth who 'broke' into the computerised system of telecom service provider Airtel and 'procured' billing details of 26 people.

Rejecting the plea of Ankit Srivastava, resident of Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kanwaljeet Arora said,''the right to privacy has been considered as most pious and sovereign by makers of our constitution and is a Fundamental Right and transgression on the same is a grave offense.'' The court said it was rejecting the bail ''considering the gravity of the offense which has resulted in causing injury not only to the service provider but the same also amounts to transgression on the right to privacy of an individual.'' In his bail application before the court yesterday, Ankit claimed he was not hacking the website but said a fault in the Airtel security system allowed anybody to access billing details by putting an id.

Ankit, who is a B Com graduate with no technical expertise, stated there was inherent defect in Airtel's security system and there was no need for 'hacking' it to get such details.

Ankit alleged that Airtel's complaint against him was a 'counter move', after he had lodged an FIR against the company with Senior Suprintendent of Police Ghaziabad on June 21 claiming the company's system and the data of its subcribers', including his, was not 'safe'.

He was yesterday send to a 15-day judicial custody by the court.

He had last week been remanded to seven day police custody after the Special cell of the Delhi Police, on a complaint by Airtel, registered an FIR on June 24 against him under the provisions of the Information Technology Act.

Ankit was arrested on June 26.

UNI XC AK GC1910