Overview
- Government documents show Home Minister Amit Shah signed a January 7, 2026 letter exempting at least 422 foreign forensic products from Make in India procurement rules and a January 20, 2026 letter authorised the NIA to buy a Cellebrite three‑year licence.
- Tender specifications reviewed by investigators sought tools that can bypass passwords and screen locks, recover deleted files and full device file systems, decrypt backups, and detect VPN use.
- The documents also requested the ability to use recovered login tokens to access more than 100 web services, including Google, Apple, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, X, Tinder, Grindr and OkCupid.
- Reporting confirms at least one NIA licence worth about Rs 5 crore and shows similar procurements or requests by multiple state and central agencies, including Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.
- Digital-rights groups and privacy experts warn the procurement route used—the ministerial exemption to Make in India—raises risks of broad, poorly overseen access to personal data and calls for clearer legal limits and independent oversight.