Vikesh Sharma, 35, was sacked from his job as a senior software engineer at a Delhi-based company earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic.

After his arrest, he allegedly confessed to police that he had launched the cyber attacks to hurt the company and persuade it to hire him back.

The company handles data for small hospitals and Mr Sharma allegedly deleted or modified data relating to hundreds of thousands of patients.

He is now facing charges under India’s main cybercrime law, the Information Technology Act 2000, according to The Hindu.