Seven persons who allegedly hacked into the website of the regional passport office here and blocked the slots have been arrested, a top police officer said today.

Sleuths of Commissioner's Task Force (North Zone) arrested the seven persons who were part of a gang which hacked into the Passport Office's website and booked slots for registration of passport applications online under 'Tatkal' scheme, Hyderabad Police Commissioner A K Khan told reporters here.

"The gang led by Lathadhar Rao, a PG diploma holder in computer applications, and his associates illegally uploaded about 3,000 passport applications by hacking into the website," Khan said.

The applicants in urgent need of passports approached the agents for submitting their applications who in turn were selling these slots to applicants by collecting huge amounts, Khan claimed.

The Regional Passport Office here was officially releasing online slots for confirmed dates of appointments to the applicants in obtaining passports under 'Tatkal' scheme.

Rao allegedly gained access to the server of NIC and succeeded in submitting the passport applications with confirmed dates under the scheme, the officer said.

Police have seized a laptop used by Rao and some computer systems used by the passport agents.