Court allows CBI plea seeking Pak Govt help in hacking case

New Delhi, Feb 15 (PTI) CBI will seek Pakistangovernment''s help in identifying members of a hacker group"VERGIL" operating from that country and was allegedlyinvolved in defacing the official website of Bureau of PoliceResearch and Development in 2010.

Accepting a CBI plea, a Delhi court today issued a''Letter of Request'' to the Department of Justice in Pakistanfor obtaining information and documents relating to the case.

The agency had moved an application before ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav, who said he was satisfiedthat a case has been made out for issuing the ''Letter ofRequest''.

"Considering the facts and the circumstances of thecase in totality, in my opinion, CBI has been able to make outa good case for issuance of Letter of Request under section166 (A) CrPC in favour of the Department of Justice inPakistan for obtaining the information and documents," the CMMsaid.

The CBI registered a case on the basis of a complaintreceived from Director General of BPRD that its officialwebsite (www.bprd.gov.in) stopped functioning from March 12,2010 and the website was defaced by a Pakistani hacker group''VERGIL''.

CBI''s Special Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Sharmatold the court that the site contained details relating topolice development and research, training, various policecommission reports, police reforms, events and otherinformation.

He apprised the court that four Internet Protocol (IP)addresses were used in the commission of the offence andduring investigation it was revealed that these IP addressesbelonged to Lahore, Punjab in Pakistan.

CBI further contended that Pakistan TelecommunicationCompany Limited (PTCL) was the concerned Internet ServiceProvider (ISP) for the four IP addresses.

"It was clear that the unauthorized access for thedefacement of the BPRD website was done by some persons usingthe broadband internet services of PTCL.....This company wasfound dealing with multimedia and telecommunications servicesin Pakistan," Sharma told the court.

The CBI has sought from Pakistan the user details forthese four IP addresses at some specific time and has alsoasked for a probe to know about the associates of the group''VERGIL''.

The CBI told the court that Ministry of Home Affairshas also accorded approval to the CBI to send Letter ofRequest to Pakistan.