The crimil cases filed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) against a newspaper and a jourlist for exposing Aadhaar security flaws reeks of sinister intent. Press bodies across the country, including the Press Club of India, Press Association, the Editors Guild, Indian Women’s Press Corps and many others, have dubbed the move as “a direct attack” on the freedom of the press. The outcry is over the UIDAI lodging a police complaint against the Chandigarh-based daily The Tribune and its reporter Rach Khaira. The issue has begun to snowball and assume political overtones, with the Congress accusing the rendra Modi government of displaying “arrogance of power at its worst”. BJP lawmaker from Pat Sahib Shatrughan Sinha has once again wrong-footed his party by wondering whether “we are living in a ba republic”. Considering that the BJP’s first reaction to the Tribune report published on January 3 this year was that it was ‘fake’, the party is now decidedly on the backfoot. Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad — while assuring that the government “is fully committed” to press freedom as well as maintaining Aadhaar security — has said that the FIR is against “unknown” people. “I’ve suggested UIDAI to request The Tribune and its jourlist to give all assistance to police in investigating the real offenders,” he has tweeted. On its part, the UIDAI has said it respects free speech and freedom of the press, while contending that its FIR should not be viewed as “shooting the messenger”. However, the FIR, lodged with the cyber cell of Delhi Police Crime Branch, indicates otherwise. It invokes serious charges like cheating under impersotion (Sec 419), cheating (Sec 420), forgery (Sec 468) and using forged document (Sec 471) under Indian Pel Code (IPC), as well as sections of IT Act and Aadhaar Act. So what was this news report by The Tribune that has attracted such a harsh response from the Aadhaar authority?