FIR Against Tribune Journalist: Is The Government Shooting The Messenger?

Provisions in the first information report filed against Tribune journalist Rachna Khaira for her report exposing vulnerabilities in Aadhaar security, fails to establish criminal intent, said Supreme Court Advocate Apar Gupta.

“For a crime to take place, you need to establish criminal intent. That was lacking in this case,” Gupta told BloombergQuint in an interview.

The Tribune last week reported that it received an offer to buy access into the Aadhaar database for Rs 500. The report renewed privacy concerns around the world's largest database of biometric details of a 1.19 billion residents in India.

Within days of this news report, the Delhi Police registered an FIR based on a UIDAI official’s complaint over the newspaper report even as The Tribune said it will defend its freedom to undertake investigative journalism.

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Pointing to the contradiction in UIDAI's stance, Gupta said, “Its public statement seems to be placating any kind of public concern wherein it's saying there hasn't been any unauthorised access of our data. But at the same time, it's filed a complaint whereby it's alleging that there has been an unauthorised access,” he explained.

Political commentator Neerja Chowdhury echoed Gupta’s views. “It is a warning development as far freedom of press is concerned.”

With Aadhaar being made mandatory to avail not just welfare schemes but also services such as bank accounts and mobile phones, bringing the issue to the attention of the government and society was in the interest of “public good”, Chowdhury said. The government, instead of penalising the journalist, should have taken action on the alleged loopholes, she added.

Earlier in the day, the Centre, defending itself against criticism over the FIR, said it was “fully committed to Freedom of Press as well as to maintaining security and sanctity of Aadhaar for India’s development.” The FIR has been filed against unknown people, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Defending the government’s action, Mohandas Pai, co-founder of Aarin Capital and former Infosys CFO said there were solid grounds for the FIR. “As per the Aadhaar Act, hacking is illegal, and in this case the journalist has used a stolen password to hack the system.”