Hyderabad: Seven persons, who allegedly hacked the website of Regional Passport Office and blocked the slots have been arrested, a top police officer said today.

Sleuths of Commissioner's Task Force (North Zone) apprehended the gang of seven persons, who hacked the Passport Office (Hyderabad) website and booked slots for registration of Passport applications online under 'Tatkal' scheme and thus made it difficult for others to secure slots, 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 the website so far, Khan said.

The Regional Passport Office authorities of Hyderabad are officially releasing online slots for confirmed dates of appointments to the applicants in obtaining passports under 'Tatkal' scheme, the top cop said.

But, Lathadhar Rao, entered the website and gained access to the server of NIC and succeeded in submitting the passport applications with confirmed dates under 'Tatkal' scheme, the Commissioner explained.

"The applicants who are 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 added. Police have seized a laptop used by Lathadhar Rao and some computer systems used by the Passport agents. Further investigations.