The Delhi Police have questioned two people working in the office of the magistrate of Gujarat’s Surat district in connection with the investigation into a news report on data privacy concerns of Aadhaar earlier this year, The Indian Express reported on Thursday. Rachna Khaira of The Tribune had reported in January that anonymous sellers on WhatsApp were providing access to Aadhaar numbers for a fee.

After the story was published, the Unique Identification Authority of India, which runs the biometric identification project, accused the newspaper of misreporting and claimed that Aadhaar information was secure. A deputy director at the agency even filed a complaint with the Delhi Police, which registered a first information report.

“We have served notices under Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code to two persons working with an Aadhaar centre running inside the office of the district magistrate of Surat,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) AK Singla told The Indian Express. “Further investigations are underway.”

The investigators zeroed in on the district magistrate’s office after they found that his login details were used to access the data. “The police then discovered that an Aadhaar centre had been running inside his office, and staff had been using his login ID,” said unidentified officials in the cyber cell. “But since the staffers in question were not present, the police paid a visit later and served notices to them.” Such centres typically make Aadhaar cards and even handle requests for change in information.

The newspaper could not reach the district magistrate and the collector for comment. However, Deputy Mamlatdar Mahendra Dave told the daily that a team of police officials from Delhi had visited Surat a few days ago to collect information. “I am unaware if two persons from the district collector’s office were questioned by Delhi Police.”