The Election Commission has found initial evidence of the leaking of national identity card information to third parties from five institutions having deals with the EC on using its database for verification purposes.
EC senior secretary Akhtar Ahmed on Monday revealed the information to reporters after a views-exchange meeting with organisations using NID verification services, held at Nirbachan Bhaban at Agargaon in the capital Dhaka.
The five organisations from which the information was leaked are the Department of Health, UCB Bank鈥檚 Upay, Chittagong Port Authority, Department of Women鈥檚 Affairs and the integrated budget and accounting system under the finance ministry, he said.
The EC has asked the entities to explain how the information was leaked, he said.
Akhtar said that it appeared that those who were given the opportunity to verify the information for offering people different services had shared it with unauthorised individuals or organisations without the EC鈥檚 knowledge, which was undesirable.
鈥楾he issues of information leak are technical and will be further scrutinised. We are examining whether the leaks were intentional or accidental. If someone did it deliberately, it is a punishable offence,鈥� the secretary said.
NID services are provided by the Election Commission which also controls the NID database.
A total of 182 government and private organisations have contracts with the EC on using its NID information verification services.
In October past year, a case was filed against the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and former information and communication technology affairs state minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak and 17 others over allegations of selling data of national identity cards of over 11 crore people of the country illegally for Tk聽20,000 crore.
Aggrieved businessman Mohammad Enamul Haque filed the case with the Kafrul police station naming 19 people and 15 to 19 unnamed others under the Cyber Security Act and some sections of the Penal Code.
On October 4, 2022, a bilateral agreement was signed between the Election Commission and the Bangladesh Computer Council.
Section 2 of the agreement clearly stated that the council would not sell any data to individuals or organisations by any means, according to a Dhaka Metropolitan Police press release.
The DMP also said that the accused had reportedly sold 46 kinds of data of the citizens by creating mirror copies.
Palak is now detained and on remand in the police custody. Joy is now staying aboard.
