The university’s registrar submitted a written complaint to the police after which an FIR was lodged on July 31 against an unidentified person under sections of the Information Technology Amendment Act. (Representational)

A 22-year-old student from Vadodara was arrested for allegedly hacking the software of Gujarat Technical University (GTU) and stealing data of as many as 1,275 students and uploading it on different websites.

According to officials of Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell, the student, who is pursuing his eighth semester (fourth year) in Electrical Engineering from a private college affiliated to GTU, had hacked the GTU software used as pre-trial for students to register themselves for the online examination with their personal details.

“The accused student had learned hacking as part of his hobby and he gained access to the data of the students which was gathered in the software system of GTU as part of a pre-trial run before the online exam. He later uploaded the leaked data of students on different portals and created an anonymous Twitter account to prove that online exams are not safe,” said Amit Vasava, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell.

“The accused said that he did not do it for any personal gain, but to rather get the online examinations of GTU cancelled as no other university in India was conducting online exams in the wake of ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,” the DCP said.

The GTU management had organised an online test for students enrolled in sixth semester of graduation, post-graduation and diploma courses in institutes affiliated to GTU.

As per the GTU management, a test was conducted on July 28 which was attended by thousands of students. However, around 1,900 students were not able to register for the test. The university then on July 29 held an online test again in which 1,275 students appeared.

The next day, several students shared a link on social media which contained the personal details of all the students who appeared in the re-test of the GTU. The data included personal photographs, Aadhaar card, PAN card and voter ID card details of the students belonging to Bachelor in Engineering (BE) course from colleges affiliated to

The university’s registrar submitted a written complaint to the police after which an FIR was lodged on July 31 against an unidentified person under sections of the Information Technology Amendment Act.