The Opposition Congress approached the Chief Election Commissioner of India with a complaint against Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai over the voter data theft by the private NGO Chilume. Crucially, the Congress alleged that the NGO’s field workers collected information on a private mobile application instead of the designated government voter registration application. “The private company [not the trust] runs the voter Survey App called “Digital Sameeksha” and it was into this private app that all the data collected by the individuals posing as BLO officials was being fed,” stated the complaint.
The Congress said that the fraud was committed under the political patronage of the Chief Minister. “Chilume was committing this entire fraud, cheating and impersonation under the political patronage of the in-charge minister, i.e. the CM, Shri Basavaraj Bommai; Chief Commissioner of BBMP [appointed in the position by Shri. Basavaraj Bommai] and other officers of the BBMP and the state Government,” the complaint read.
The party also raised questions about the funding for the exercise. “If the entire exercise was being done free of cost, then how could Chilume afford such a massive outlay, of close to Rs. 18 Crores. Where was this money coming from and who was funding this entire fraudulent operation?,” the complaint read.
Police officials investigating the case have made five arrests so far, including Ravikumar Krishnappa, the main person behind Chilume. The others arrested are Chilume staff members Prajwal, Renuka Prasad, and Dharmesh, along with Ravikumar's elder brother Kempe Gowda.
Meanwhile, the ruling BJP in Karnataka, facing allegations of stealing voters' data, lodged a complaint with the State Election Commission seeking action against those involved in the scam on Wednesday, November 23.
MLC Chalawadi Narayanaswamy and BJP executive committee member Vivek Reddy met the Chief Electoral Officer in Bengaluru and made a submission in this regard. In its complaint, the BJP has sought immediate legal action against those involved in the scam.
The Karnataka Congress had questioned the ruling BJP on large-scale voter data theft involving Chilume, a private NGO in Bengaluru. The allegations were made following TNM's investigation into the organisation after it deployed field workers impersonating election officials to collect sensitive voter data.
"Along with staffers of Chilume institution, more than 7000 persons were hired on contract basis. The case must be lodged against all election officers of 28 Assembly constituencies," Congress President DK Shivakumar had said.
However, the ruling BJP has rebutted the Congress’s accusations by saying that the latter is worried over the deletion of more than 1.5 lakh duplicate voters roped in from neighbouring states. A BJP sympathiser had earlier filed a complaint to the Election Commission in October alleging that there are 26,000 fake voters in Bengaluru's Shivajinagar assembly constituency. The complainant had said that a majority of the voters they suspect to be fake are from the Muslim community.
The BJP's letter to the EC mentioned that action had been taken against Chilume following the revelations about its illegal voter data collection. The party blamed former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of the Congress for issuing orders in 2017 that enabled Chilume to do electoral revision and appoint booth level officers.