Explained | Bengaluru’s voter data theft case and political storm in Karnataka Premium

What is the voter data theft case? How did Chilume, the NGO accused of the fraud, carry out voter data collection? How can the data be misused?

The story so far: On November 16, Bengaluru’s civic body, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said in a press release that it had cancelled permission granted to Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Trust, an NGO, to conduct house-to-house survey to help create awareness about Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) for allegedly collecting personal information from the public.

A day after this, a political storm started in Karnataka after the Opposition Congress called it voter data “theft” by the NGO impersonating BBMP officials, and alleged that the ruling BJP was trampling democracy.

Since the scandal broke out, the police have arrested six people, including Krishnappa Ravikumar, the prime accused in the voter data theft case and co-founder of Chilume NGO. Meanwhile, three revenue officers have been suspended so far and 45 revenue officers have been questioned by the police.

In March 2018, permission was granted by the BBMP to Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Trust for house-to-house visits to create awareness towards making online applications via the voters’ helpline mobile app.

On November 2, 2022, the BBMP revoked permission to Chilume to carry out the SVEEP campaign after receiving several complaints from residents that the NGO was collecting personal details while conducting door-to-door surveys by deputing field level workers.

BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath had earlier said, “The Trust has violated the conditions of the permission. Therefore, the permission has been withdrawn with immediate effect... We appeal to the public not to share their voter ID details with the representatives of the Trust.”

The Congress party has alleged the NGO of large-scale electoral fraud, malpractice and manipulation of voters’ list in the name of awareness and also by developing an app — called Digital Sameeksha — where the personal information of the voter — including Aadhaar number, phone number, Voter ID number — was uploaded and misused.