Edu dept reported cyber theft of 580 Shalarth IDs in Jan, case lying in limbo

Nagpur: The office of the deputy director of education had in January this year, lodged a complaint of database theft and hacking with the cyber cell police, alleging that around 600 Shalarth IDs and passwords had been compromised. However, this probe never took off, and it is only now, when fraudulently issued Shalarth IDs are under scanner, that the case is coming to light.

Most intriguingly, it has only now come to light that for the last four months, the case (crime number 24/2025) had made remarkably questionable progress. There is precious little to show for investigation even though 580 fake teachers may be enjoying govt benefits and salaries at the cost of the govt exchequer. There have been no arrests so far.

The education department had claimed while filing the compliant with the cyber cops that their system was hacked and the Shalarth IDs were stolen. Accordingly, the cyber cops registered an offence against an ‘unidentified' hacker.

While the probe or action initiated by the cyber cops is still unclear, sources said some teachers may be using the stolen Shalarth IDs to enjoy salaries under questionable circumstances.

DCP Cyber Lohit Matani said an offence was registered for Shalarth ID theft, but no one has been identified as the culprit so far. "Our probe is still underway," said Matani.

Sources from the police department said the office of the deputy director of education, Ulhas Narad, who is now defending himself in the case of alleged multi-crore corruption, had registered the complaint with the Sadar police station. The FIR (24/2025) was filed by the department in January. As per police sources, Narad's department is claiming they were the first to complain to the cops about the theft of Shalarth IDs.

Though police have said the recently exposed education department scam has nothing to do with the cyber complaint, sources stated an attempt was definitely made in the past to flag the misuse of the Shalarth IDs for govt benefits for teachers, but it was not taken seriously.