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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Two more Hindu priests arrested in Bangladesh: ISKCON Kolkata
Kolkata, Nov 30: Two more Hindu priests were arrested in Bangladesh, ISKCON Kolkata spokesperson Radharamn Das claimed on Saturday.
Speaking to PTI, Radharamn said, "I have received information that two more ISKCON monks have been arrested by police in Bangladesh."
In a post on X on Friday night, Radharamn said, "In the meantime, bad news has come: two devotees who went with prasad for Chinmaya Prabhu were arrested on their way back to the temple, and Chinmaya prabhu's secretary is also missing. Please pray for them."
Earlier on Friday, Radharamn had posted, "Another Brahmachari, Sri Shyam Das Prabhu, was arrested by Chattogram Police today."
"Does he look like a terrorist? #FreeISKCONMonks Bangladesh. The arrest of innocent #ISKCON brahmacharis are deeply shocking & disturbing," Radharamn posted on X on Saturday. His comments comes comes in the backdrop of unconfirmed reports of arrest of three more ISKCON monks, days after the arrest of spiritual leader Chinmay Das.
Chinmay Das, who also served as a spokesperson for Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote, was arrested at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Monday while en route to Chattogram to attend a rally. He was denied bail and sent to jail on Tuesday by the Chattogram Sixth Metropolitan Magistrate Court.
Historically, Hindus made up approximately 22 per cent of Bangladesh's population during the 1971 Liberation War.
The Hindu population, once a substantial demographic in Bangladesh, has experienced a significant decline in recent decades, with the minority community now comprising only around 8 per cent of the country's total population.
This drop is largely attributed to a combination of socio-political marginalisation, exodus and sporadic violence over the years.
In the meantime, bad news has come: two devotees who went with prasad for Chinmaya Prabhu were arrested on their way back to the temple, and Chinmaya prabhu's secretary is also missing. Please pray for them. #Bangladesh #ISKCON pic.twitter.com/NLX8hNZmpN
— Radharamn Das राधारमण दास (@RadharamnDas) November 29, 2024
Does he look like a terrorist?#FreeISKCONMonks Bangladesh. The arrest of innocent #ISKCON brahmacharis are deeply shocking & disturbing. pic.twitter.com/VG6u7jlnXB
— Radharamn Das राधारमण दास (@RadharamnDas) November 30, 2024
