Attorney General for India Mukul Rohtagi, who is the chief legal adviser to the Central Government, is the latest victim of cyber crime.
An FIR against unknown persons was registered with the Delhi Police on Thursday by the top law officer of the country after he found that his personal email account was hacked by someone and ‘obnoxious’ mails were sent to his family, friends, clients, important contacts as well as his bankers.
The law officer, who is currently in Moscow, saw that certain emails were sent to some people, from both of his personal email IDs (mukul17855@yahoo.com and mukul178555@outlook.com), something which he did not even have knowledge of, said a police official.
“In one such e-mail sent to one of Rohtagi’s client in the morning from his mail-ID (mukul17855@yahoo.com) it was written ‘Are you in townIJ I need you to do me a favour. Regards Mukul,” said the official.
In another email sent from his account to his personal contact named Anupam Sanghi (pamsanghi@gmail.com) from his other email ID (mukul178555@outlook.com) it was written, “I need to send some money to my attorney who is helping me secure some papers for a property I bought in Phillipines which the Government is trying to impound. I can’t do this now because I am currently travelling by sea, can you help me in transferring/Wire of Odle amount of money to my attorneyIJ I will get it refunded back to you soon as I return on Friday. Regards Mukul”, said the official.
The police official further said some similar emails asking for financial favours were sent to the attorney general’s bankers from his personal email account.
“The Attorney General’s bankers immediately contacted his office to verify the content and genuineness of the emails as they were of unrealistic nature. The bankers were asked to not act upon the same for any untoward transactions, actions etc” said the official.’
Following which Rohtagi immediately informed his personal secretary C Gajendran Naidu, who went and complained to police about the matter. “Whoever did this did something very wrong. It is a cause of concern, unpleasant and illegal,” alleged Naidu.
“The emails sent after the Attorney general’s account were hacked and has caused harm to his reputation and it is very serious involving financial favours wrongly asked. We are further investigating into the matter,” said the police official.