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This is an archive article published on September 25, 2004

Scientist couple held for selling sensitive data

A senior scientist couple from Remote Sensing Applications Centre was arrested in Lucknow tonight for selling sensitive satellite pictures a...

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A senior scientist couple from Remote Sensing Applications Centre was arrested in Lucknow tonight for selling sensitive satellite pictures and data pertaining to Lucknow for Rs 2.5 lakh to a private firm.

The accused, Alok Saini, was the incharge of such data at RSAR while his wife, Paramjeet Kaur, had left the institution few months ago.

Navneet Sehgal, Secretary, UP Science and Technology, and the complainant, said the data was obtained by RSAR from Ekonos, a US satellite and was meant only for internal government use. Sehgal said the state government had paid the Centre to get the global sattelite mapping of Lucknow.

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An investigation by RSAR authorities on Sehgal’s directions showed that Saini copied the data onto a computer at his house. He then roped in a Gurgoan-based private firm, KLG Systel limited, which had taken a contract from the Lucknow State Electricity Board for collection of bills from the Trans-Gomti area. The data was sold to the said firm after Saini entered into a written agreement on his wife’s name, Sehgal added. Police are also looking into the possibility that the data was sold to other agencies as well.

‘‘A company like KLG Systel would have had to purchase it (data) from the National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, at a very high price,’’ Sehgal says.

RSAR became suspicious when they found out last month that KLG Systel was using the data.

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