Four people linked to a Hassan-based company have been arrested for allegedly hacking the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) website earlier this year and hosting a fake website in its place. The accused have been identified as Dharmesh Jain, Arun, Siddharth and Venkatesh. Another person linked to Varahe Analytics – a political strategy firm working with the BJP – is absconding, officers said. In February this year, the Congress filed a police complaint after its website was attacked multiple times within a few days in the run-up to the state Assembly polls. The website was taken down by the hackers, who hosted in its place a spoof website that attacked the Congress party and accused it of being communal and corrupt. Photos of Congress leaders were misrepresented in the portal, following which the KPCC filed the complaint. The cybercrime police soon sought information from service providers on the hosting details of the fake website, registration, logs and other details including those related to payments. During the probe, officials zeroed in on one M/s Vet Fab Technologies Private Ltd, which was registered in Hassan and had offices in Bengaluru. The firm had developed the fake website and uploaded the content with an intent to disseminate false information, the police said in a statement. The police nabbed Dharmesh Jain and Arun, in connection with the payment for hosting the website, along with Siddharth and Venkatesh during raids carried out at the offices in Hassan and Bengaluru on Thursday. Venkatesh was an employee of the firm in Hassan, while the other three are its directors. Officers said Shashank Bharadwaj, employed at Varahe Analytics, had approached the company to create the fake website.
