Received Written Order From Authorities, Mandated To Comply: Razorpay On Handing Over AltNews Donor Data To Police

Payments service provider Razorpay has issued a clarification in response to a statement by AltNews, in which it was stated that the payment platform shared its donor data with the police.

On Monday (4 July), AltNews tweeted a statement saying Razorpay disabled its account. Later, the platform's account was re-enabled.

AltNews said while many people had reached out to them about donations, the company was “unable to receive donations at this point as Razorpay, the payment platform we were using to receive donations, has disabled our account”.

Following AltNews' statement, Razorpay issued a clarification on Monday (4 July) saying, "The merchant account was deactivated from the Razorpay platform temporarily, as a safety precaution, during the preliminary investigation by the authorities. Following clarity on the issue, we have unblocked and reactivated the account. We have extended our full cooperation to the authorities in the investigation and will continue to do so, as needed," reports MoneyControl.

On Tuesday (5 July), AltNews took to Twitter to inform that data of its donors had been shared by RazorPay with the police.

After AltNews' tweet, Razorpay issued a clarification, saying, "While we strive to ensure transactions on the platform are safe, but at the same time, being a leading financial organisation we are fully abiding and compliant with all necessary laws and regulations of India. We had received a written order from the legal authorities under Section 91 CRPC and we are mandated to comply with the same as per the regulation under the provisions of Indian law".

Under Section 91 of the CrPC, any court or any officer in charge of a police station can seek data that is deemed important for any ongoing investigation.

The development comes after AltNews co-founder Mohammad Zubair, who has been arrested for hurting religious sentiments following a complaint over a tweet, was sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Saturday (2 July).