Odisha teenager lands in AP jail for hacking toll-free number

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Balasore, May 29:

An Odisha teenager’s misadventure with cyber hacking techniques landed him in trouble as he was arrested by Cyberabad Cyber Crime Police here on Wednesday and sent to jail in Hyderabad yesterday, sources said today.

The accused identified as Himalaya Mohanty was arrested from Shibapura village under Khantapada police station limits in Balasore district on last Wednesday and taken on a transit remand to Hyderabad, sources said.

“Himalaya Mohanty was arrested and produced before the local court in the district on May 25 (Wednesday). The Hyderabad police prayed for a three-day remand which the court granted. He was produced before the court there in Hyderabad,” Khantapada IIC, Sudarshan Dash said.

“The accused was produced before a local court in Hyderabad and sent to jail,” D Pratap Reddy, an official of Cyber Crime police station, Cyberabad informed.

The 19-year-old ITI student of a Soro-based institute allegedly hacked a toll-free number of a Hyderabad-based multi-national company Lloyd Electrical and Engineering Limited, resulting in an exorbitant bill of Rs. 60 lakh.

The youth cracked the code to an EPABX (Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange) and put up the details on the website facilitating people to make calls without any charges.

Surprisingly, the teen, who is not so fluent in English, learnt the hacking techniques from websites. He had hosted a website with the help of a smartphone.

“In spite of his poor English, he got himself registered in various forums/websites of hacking and participating in chatting by using translator software….he did not gain monetarily in this case,” the police release said, adding that he told the officers that he did it only for fun.

In November last year, the company received an inflated bill of Rs 60 lakh following which it lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime police.

Upon investigation, the police traced the hacker to a remote village in Balasore district.