The probe into the voters’ data theft scandal has now expanded from the Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Trust, which allegedly impersonated the civic body and illegally carried out voter surveys, to the Revenue Officers of the civic body, who allegedly colluded with them.
Hours after the city police issued notices to 20 Revenue officials, the in-charge of electoral roll revision and linking of Aadhar card with electoral rolls, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), suspended Revenue Officers in three Assembly constituencies, Mahadevapura, Shivaji Nagar, and Chickpet, pending departmental inquiry, for alleged dereliction of duty.
Chief Civic Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath, who is also the Chief Election Officer for the city, had ordered a probe into allegations of an illegal survey by the trust by the Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru Urban district.
Based on his reports, three officers, K. Chandrashekhar, RO, Mahadevapura; Suhail Ahmed, RO, Shivajinagar, and V.B. Bhimashankar, RO, Chickpet, have been suspended.
The suspension orders said these officers were found to have issued ID cards to volunteers from the trust tasked with carrying out the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign, as block-level coordinators (BLCs), in violation of norms.
However, in multiple cases, ID cards with the RO’s signature and seal designated as block-level officer (BLO) for those associated with the trust have been found, the DC’s report noted and held the ROs culpable of dereliction of duty.
The city police have recovered several ID cards of those associated with the trust as BLOs and are probing their source, issuing notices to Revenue officers.
Meanwhile, the police are on the lookout for one of the prime suspects in the case K.M. Lokesh, the administrator at the trust, who was allegedly coordinating the surveys and organised BLO ID cards for the surveyors.
Lokesh was allegedly coordinating the field workers and issuing them ID cards with the signature and the seal of the officials concerned. Lokesh has been on the run ever since the incident came to light.
The police have arrested the founder-brothers of the trust, Krishnappa Ravikumar and Kempegowda, along with two other staffers and detained the chief software developer of the Digital Sameeksha app, into which voter data was being fed.
The police are now questioning Ravikumar to know the motive behind collecting the data and the involvement of the other people behind the data theft.
