An official investigation has found links between the IT minister of Karnataka and the company that masterminded the voter data theft scam in Bengaluru. The scam was first exposed through a journalistic investigation five months ago. A probe by the Election Commission of India (ECI) has found evidence of financial transactions between a film company owned by a relative of Information Technology Minister and senior BJP leader CN Ashwathnarayan and a company owned by Ravikumar Krishnappa, the kingpin of the voter data scam. The movie company – Hombale Films – is behind the globally successful Kannada films KGF and Kantara and Vijay T Kiragandur, Ashwathnarayan's cousin is one of the founders.
According to the 49-page probe report by Amlan Aditya Biswas, Bengaluru Regional Commissioner, Hombale Films and Raj Dharma Analytica, which are part of the business enterprise Hombale Group, paid Chilume director Ravikumar Krishnappa’s company Digital Sameeksha Rs 10.5 lakh and Rs 5.9 lakh respectively. Biswas’ investigation also found receipts showing Ravikumar Krishnappa donated Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 to the Dr C N Ashwathnarayan Foundation and Malleshwaram Sports Foundation respectively. Vijay T Kiragandur is a director in the Malleshwaram Sports Foundation.
It may be recalled that in November last year TNM and the Kannada outlet Pratidhavi published the findings of a three-month investigation which showed that Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute – an NGO owned by Krishnappa – had deployed hundreds of young men across the city to steal confidential information from voters by posing as Booth Level Officers of the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike). The data collected from unsuspecting respondents included caste, mother tongue, marital status, age, gender, employment, education, Aadhaar number, phone number, postal address, voter-ID number and email address. The citizens were also asked subjective questions about their political views.
The stolen data was collected using a private mobile app created by Digital Sameeksha and stored in a foreign server, on either Chinese or East European servers. According to both ECI officials and the police, who are probing the case, personal information belonging to thousands, possibly lakhs of citizens, is already in the hands of those who commissioned this illegal voter survey. Given the sheer number of people employed, as well as the quantity and quality of data collected, those who possess this information will have a distinct advantage over their rivals in the ongoing election campaign.
According to an investigation conducted by Indian Express, Ashwathnarayan was a guarantor for loans obtained by Hombale Films. The co-founder of Hombale Group Chaluve Gowda sought to distance himself and the minister from the activities of Chilume. He claimed that Digital Sameeksha was selected by them at random and dismissed claims that Krishnappa and his firm were introduced by Ashwathnarayan.
When we confronted CN Ashwathnarayan with the allegations, he denied any links with Chilume and said that the ECI’s investigation was into whether electoral rolls in three constituencies had been manipulated. His constituency of Malleshwaram wasn’t one, he said, “There is nothing related, investigation is going on and ECI is looking into it.” When we pointed out that Amlan Biswas’ probe showed transactions between Hombale and Digital Sameeksha, he said, “They (Chilume) would have been giving other services, there will be a complete scrutiny. I have nothing to do with it, you can look at the full report, it doesn’t have anything to do with my constituency,” he said, refusing to answer further questions.
Digital Sameeksha was registered as a sole proprietorship in 2018 for “construction services,” they were however engaged in surveys and election work, the probe found. Hombale Films and Raj Dharma Analytica made payments for providing “manpower for film promotion”.
When we reached out to Chaluve Gowda, a co-founder of Hombale Group, he said that he was not aware of any election related activities of Chilume. “They may have an app also but we are not aware. They provide manpower for which we have used their services for our promotions, field activities, theatre visits, and they have raised invoices for the same. We have submitted them, GST is filed, everything is clear and this is a genuine transaction,” Chaluve Gowda said.
Asked why Digital Sameeksha, which is an app provider, was asked to supply man-power, he stated that Hombale’s marketing and PR companies engage many agencies and Digital Sameeksha must have come through them. “We are not aware of their activities and we don’t know them personally,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Congress reacted saying that their stand that Aswathnarayan has links to Ravikumar Krishnappa has been proven by the probe. Shivajinagar Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad said, “it was an open secret that the Congress had flagged earlier that Ashwathnarayan was close to Chilume. If this fraud was not exposed and the BJP had succeeded in conducting their exercise, it would have serious repercussions on the current elections."
Ravikumar Krishnappa and the officials who colluded with him are the only ones who have been prosecuted so far. Neither the political implications nor, indeed, the possible role of politicians has been explored so far. Despite the apparent fact that voter data is a priceless commodity in electoral competitions, there is still no concrete information on who paid for this massive exercise.
Watch a conversation between Dhanya Rajendran and Anna Isaac on the story