Private company in Bengaluru found selling bulk voter data to candidates in Karnataka Assembly polls
Cyber Crime Branch officials file FIR against company
New Delhi: At the threshold of the Assembly elections in the state, a private firm in Bengaluru has been found selling voter data in bulk.
While the owners are yet to be traced, the company has been found advertising on its website openly that it has ‘sensitive information’ related to voters, including their mobile phone numbers and WhatsApp numbers, reports The News Minute.
The potential clients are given login access by the company and can purchase the voters’ information and other services from the website, for as low a price as Rs 25,000.
Investigation on the domain details of the website revealed that it was registered in Delhi in April this year, but all other details on the website had been redacted by the company.
The Election Commission has been investigating if the company could have been used to bribe the voters to provide such information, by crediting funds into the voters’ accounts through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The matter of the data sale by the company came to light when Raju, an independent candidate, informed the EC after he was called on phone and offered voter data for a price. Raju spoke to Srinivas, the officer in-charge of enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct, about the matter. The officer, in turn, roped in the police, who registered a complaint on April 24.
An FIR has also been registered by the Cyber Crime Branch (Southeast Division) officers in Bengaluru against the private company in this regard.
On logging in to the website of the private company, it was found that the dashboard declared that the website contained data of up to 6.5 lakh voters, including 3.45 lakh male, 2.93 lakh female and 5,600 other voters. It is yet to be confirmed about the total data that the company has and if the data pertains to specific constituencies, says The News Minute.
Sources in the EC have expressed concern that the format of the data being sold is similar to what is stored on Eronet, the government portal with the EC data on voters and which only election officials can access.
This is the second voter scam discovered in Karnataka in the last six months. In November 2022, ‘Chilume’, a private company, was found to have collected personal data from lakhs of Bengaluru voters. The company staff had posted it as officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Paliker (BBMP).
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Young Arya's maiden IPL ton power PBKS to 18-run over CSK
Mullanpur, Apr 8 (PTI): Young opener Priyansh slammed his maiden IPL century to power Punjab Kings to 18-run win over Chennai Super Kings in an Indian Premier League match here on Tuesday.
Opting to bat, Arya shone bright with the bat to power PBKS to 219 for 6.
Arya rode on his luck and power-hitting to make 103 off just 42 balls with the help of seven fours and nine hits over the fence.
Besides Arya, Shashank Singh scored 52 not out off 36 balls.
Chasing, Devon Conway retired out for 69 off 49 balls, while Shivam Dube and Rachin Ravindran scored 36 and 42 respectively.
Towards the end the legendary MS Dhoni played a 27-run cameo off 12 balls but the knock was not enough to guide CSK to victory as the Chennai outfit could muster 201 for five.
Brief Scores:
Punjab Kings: 219 for 6 in 20 overs (Priyansh Arya 103, Shashank Singh 52 not out; Khaleel Ahmed 2/45).
Chennai Super Kings: 201 for 5 in 20 overs (Devon Conway 69 retired out, Shivam Dube 42; Lockie Ferguson 2/40).
