Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Sunday dismissed claims made by certain elements on Twitter that they have fetched personal details of Trai chief Ram Sewak Sharma, after the latter had thrown a challenge for the same posting his Aadhaar details on Twitter. “Any information published on Twitter about RS Sharma wasn’t fetched from Aadhaar database or UIDAI’s servers,” it said, adding, “in fact, this so–called “hacked” information was already available in public domain as he being a public servant for decades and was easily available on Google and other sites.”

Trai Chairman R S Sharma caused a flutter on social media with his Aadhaar dare on Saturday. Throwing an open challenge, Sharma challenged the Twitterati to prove how mere knowledge of the 12-digit number could be misused to cause harm. However, he later said his tweet was posted in individual capacity and not as the head of the Institution.

In a response, a deluge of tweets emerged that claimed to disclose his personal details — from PAN to mobile number. Some users even claimed to have dug up his mobile number, photo, residential address, date of birth, even chat threads using the information, and others warning him about the perils of throwing such a dare on the social media platform.

However, some supported Sharma, explaining how the much of the information about him could be procured without using his Aadhaar number. “…Pl understand that I threw this challenge, not as TRAI Chairman, but as a normal citizen of India,” Sharma tweeted. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is the nodal body for issuing the biometric identifier Aadhaar.