Krishnappa Ravikumar, the director of Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute, was arrested by the Bengaluru police on Sunday, November 20, three days after a police case was registered against him in connection with large-scale voter data theft.
Ravikumar is one of the people who registered Chilume in 2013 and is the main person behind the NGO at the centre of the voter data theft case. He was absconding after details of his NGO’s covert operation collecting voter data were published in a joint investigation by TNM and the Kannada outlet Pratidvani.
Ravikumar, 34, hails from Kallanayakanahalli near Nelamangala in Bengaluru Rural district. An investigating police officer told TNM that Ravikumar fled to Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka after the allegations against him broke out. He was continuously on the move and his phone was switched off. He was arrested on Sunday evening when he was approaching a lawyer near Bengaluru’s Cubbon Park, the police official said.
“We are ascertaining the extent of data collected on the Digital Sameeksha application used by the field workers of the NGO. We are also examining the documents seized from Chilume’s offices and his links to politicians through his phone and email,” the investigating officer told TNM. Police are also questioning the developers of the Digital Sameeksha application.
The investigation into Chilume revealed that the NGO deployed field workers posing as election officials to steal voter data. Chilume also ran a private company called Chilume Enterprises which specialises in event management and election management. The company’s website, which is now inactive, said it does “Electronic Voting Machine and counting hall preparation, CCTV installation, webcasting and check-post preparation" for political parties.
Police officials searched the office premises of Chilume Trust and a private company linked to the trust on 16th and 17th Cross Road in Malleshwaram, Bengaluru and are examining the seized documents.
Ravikumar is among five people arrested in the case. The others arrested are his elder brother Kempe Gowda and three employees of the NGO – director Renuka Prasad, HR executive Dharmesh and project executive Prajwal– were arrested by the Halasuru Gate police on the night of Friday, November 18.
A police case was registered against the proprietors of Chilume at the Halasuru Gate police station after the BBMP Special Commissioner (Administration) Rangappa S filed a complaint on November 17. The complaint accused the NGO of criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery. The FIR also named Lokesh, a field worker employed by Chilume. Another case against the NGO was registered at the Kadugodi police station in Mahadevapura based on a complaint filed by Chandrashekar, the electoral registration officer in Mahadevapura. However, this complaint only named the field worker Lokesh as an accused in the case.
TNM had earlier reported that former BJP Bengaluru MLA Nandiesha Reddy paid Rs 18 lakh to Chilume for a voter data survey in 2018. The former MLA mentioned that Krishnappa Ravikumar was his only point of contact from the NGO.