CBI Takes Over Caste Census Fraud Case Amid Political Row

The CBI has filed a cheating case against Lalit Rai, director of Thane-based Netwing Technologies Pvt Ltd, which was part of Socio Economic Caste Census or SECC-2011

Amid the growing demand for caste census from several opposition parties and the centre stonewalling it, the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI has opened a criminal investigation to probe alleged cheating and falsification of census data collected through a private firm as part of Socio Economic Caste Census, also known as SECC, in 2011.

The CBI has filed a cheating case against Lalit Rai, director of Thane-based Netwing Technologies Pvt Ltd, which was part of SECC-2011.

The centre through the Rural Development Ministry conducted the SECC across the country in 2011. This was also India's first paperless census across 640 districts.

While the data on socio economic features of households were released in July 2015, the caste data has not been released till date after the centre cited "errors" in the data.