Hyderabad city police commissioner Anjani Kumar on Wednesday claimed that there was evidence to show that the names of voters who did not support the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh may have been deleted, based on information from an application used by the party. This statement came as the Telangana government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the data theft case involving an IT firm which provided services to the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh.
“The data collected was saved in the Seva Mitra application and was shared with the IT company which conducted an analysis and forwarded it to a ‘key person’, who falsified the voter information with an intention to delete the voter details, with the help of officials who prepare the list. The total number of deleted voters has to be ascertained,” the Commissioner was quoted as saying.
However, he said that the police were still trying to ascertain who this ‘key person’ was.
“Preliminary enquiry has found that names of persons who are staying in Hyderabad but are natives of Andhra Pradesh were missing from the voter list. We are investigating the case along with the Cyberabad police under the guidance of the Election Commission,” Anjani Kumar told reporters.
Meanwhile, the nine-member SIT of the Telangana government will be headed by Inspector General of Police (West Zone) Stephen Ravindra, and take up the case registered against IT Grids for allegedly misusing the sensitive data of the citizens of Andhra Pradesh.
The Home Department, in its order, said that the SIT was constituted since the case requires expertise in investigation of cyber crimes involving various technologies and the probe has to be conducted in different places other than Cyberabad.
A case under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act was registered against the Hyderabad-based firm at Madhapur police station under Cyberabad police commissionerate on March 2.
It came on a complaint by T. Lokeswara Reddy that sensitive data including personal information, Aadhaar, voter ID, electoral rolls, beneficiary details of government schemes were being processed illegally by the company without consent of the citizens.
Cyberabad police were on the lookout for IT Grids CEO D. Ashok, who was being treated as the main suspect in the case.
The police case has sparked a row between the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments. The TDP has alleged that that Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) resorted to theft of TDP data to help the YSRCP in view of the coming elections.
However, TRS Working President K T Rama Rao said Chief Minister and TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and his son and IT Minister Nara Lokesh had become jittery as they were caught red-handed while stealing confidential data to further the poll prospects of their party.
IANS inputs