Following The News Minute and Pratidvani investigation into large-scale voter data theft in Bengaluru, the Election Commission of India on Friday November 25 directed a review of voter lists in three constituencies in the city. The election body also extended the period of claims and objections of the electoral rolls revision in these constituencies by 15 days.
In a press release, the ECI stated, "There shall be a 100% check of the deletions and additions affected in the electoral rolls after 01.01.2022 in the three Constituencies of 162 Shivajinagar, 169 Chickpet & 174 Mahadevapura."
The Election Commission of India has also appointed Special Officers from outside the BBMP to oversee the purity of electoral rolls. All officials have been told to ensure there is no direct or indirect use of illegally collected documents or data.
S Rangappa, the Additional District Election Officer (ADEO) of BBMP, K Srinivas, Additional District Election Officer cum-Deputy Commissioner Bengaluru Urban have been placed under suspension and a departmental enquiry instituted against them.
The ECI has appointed three Special Officers to oversee and ensure purity of electoral rolls. Priyanka Mary Francis, IAS has been made in charge of Shivajinagar constituency, while R Vishal, IAS will be special officer for Chickpet. Ajay Nagbhushan, IAS will be the special officer in charge of Mahadevapura.
The ECI's release also stated that wrong ID cards were used by private individuals to collect voter data. "As per the report received, wrong ID cards identifying private individuals as BLOS/BLCs have been found in the three Constituencies namely 162 Shivajinagar, 169 Chickpet & 174 Mahadevapura. Three Electoral Registration Officers of BBMP of these three Constituencies have also been placed under suspension," read the release by the ECI.
TNM had published in its investigation on November 16 that a private NGO called Chilume Educational Trust from Bengaluru had deployed hundreds field workers posing as election officials to illegally collect data from citizens. The NGO - Chilume - was enabled by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to spread voter awareness ahead of the elections in the state. The NGO in question is linked with an election management company through one of its directors and also runs a mobile application called Digital Sameeksha which was used by the field workers to store the data collected.
Following TNM’s investigation, two police cases were filed in Bengaluru’s Kadugodi police station and Halasuru Gate police station. The police cases led to the arrests of five people connected to Chilume including its head Ravikumar Krishnappa. The BBMP also issued a press release warning citizens against sharing voter data to private individuals belonging to the NGO.
Voters in Bengaluru's Shivajinagar area had raised alarm that people claiming to be booth level officers had turned up at their homes on the pretext of updating the voter’s list and deleting voters. This was brought to light by Geetha V, the booth level officer of the area, who was informed by residents about the voter verification done by unknown persons.
TNM had reported that a former BJP MLA had paid Chilume Rs 18 lakh ahead of the 2018 state elections for a voter survey.
Further, TNM had reported that the NGO was providing training to its field workers on how to map neighbourhoods and collect voters’ data inside the Hongasandra BJP ward office that is primarily used by the aspirants for the corporator post.