A hacker arrested recently in Pathanamthitta has left even the police shocked with the scale of his activities, according to reports. The 23-year-old identified as Joel worked as an agent for a private detective agency based in Hyderabad. He is accused of stealing call records, live locations, and other sensitive data using advanced hacking tools. Several clients are said to have paid him to spy on their partners using his hacking skills.
Despite being only 23, police say Joel’s data stealing techniques were sophisticated enough to surprise even experienced cyber experts. All someone had to do was give him a phone number and within minutes he could extract call details, location data, and even confidential passwords.
Joel reportedly promoted his services on Instagram and other social media platforms. Interested clients would contact him and the payments were made through the detective agency. He carried out several such hacking operations before being caught during central agency surveillance. Once they traced his activities, the information was passed to the Pathanamthitta police who arrested him soon after.
According to the police, since February 2025 Joel had been illegally accessing computer systems and websites to earn money. The FIR states that he collected and sold live location data and call detail records of private individuals for profit. He has been booked under sections 43, 66, and 72 of the IT Act covering unauthorised data access, computer related offences, and disclosure of confidential information.
A call detail record or CDR logs who called whom, when, for how long, and through which cell tower but does not include the actual audio of the call. Live location in this context refers to network based cell tower data, not GPS coordinates. Only law enforcement agencies and telecom operators are legally allowed to access such information. Police are still questioning Joel to learn about the tools and websites he used, and they say the investigation is at a crucial stage.
Experts note that while the word hacking is often associated with complex cyberattacks, Indian law defines it more broadly. Misusing passwords, social engineering, or illegally accessing data through online services are also classified as hacking or computer crimes. So although Joel is legally a hacker, some cybersecurity professionals argue that his activities were more about illegal data access than advanced technical hacking.
