Bengaluru voter data theft: 3 revenue officials suspended, founder-director of NGO Chilume held

Revenue officers T Srinivas, who worked as a special officer for the administrator, will replace Chandrashekar; Eshwara S, who worked as assistant commissioner (west-administration), will replace Ahmed; and Uma N, who worked as assistant commissioner of (R R Nagar-administration), will replace Shankar.

According to the BBMP order, Ahmed was suspended for issuing 14 booth level coordinator (BLC) ID cards to the NGO without permission from the State Election Commission. Shankar had claimed that no BLC ID cards were issued in his constituency, however, he was suspended after a probe found out that cards were issued.

The suspension came after Halasuru Gate police officials probing the alleged voter data theft case issued notice to 28 Assembly constituency electoral officers to appear for questioning.

The BBMP has entrusted Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Trust with the task of conducting house-to-house surveys to create awareness on applying online for voter IDs through a voter helpline mobile app. The NGO, however, allegedly collected personal information about voters, with its members posing as government officials in some cases.

On Sunday night, the NGO’s founder-director Ravi Kumar was arrested. Earlier, the Halasuru Gate police had arrested Dharanesh, the trust’s HR chief, Renuka Prasad, one of the directors, and Kumar’s brother, Kempegowda.

According to police sources, while one team is questioning the arrested accused about how they ‘stole’ information from the BBMP, another police team is verifying documents seized during a raid on Saturday at different places connected to Chilume, including its office in Malleswaram.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) R Srinivas Gowda, the police have also seized a few laptops and Kempegowda has allegedly given them crucial information about the data stored in the Digital Sameeksha app.