Overview
- Police arrested 27-year-old Bapi Adya in West Bengal’s Nadia district, produced him in a Bengaluru court, and secured 12 days of custody.
- The SIT alleges Adya supplied “OTP bypass” services via the OTPbazaar website, with Rs 700 credited per bypass through a BharatPe gateway to his IndusInd Bank account.
- Investigators seized two laptops and a mobile phone and plan to examine how Election Commission logins were accessed without the knowledge of the registered number holders.
- On-ground checks in February 2023 found 5,994 of 6,018 Form 7 applications to delete voters in Aland were forged, submitted through Election Commission portals using dozens of phone numbers across many states.
- The Election Commission has since introduced Aadhaar-enabled, double-factor authentication for its online services as the SIT continues financial and forensic inquiries.