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).
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
CM Siddaramaiah labels Kumaraswamy 'Manuvadi" over Bhagavad Gita curriculum push
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday took a swipe at Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy, by calling him a "Manuvadi" after his alliance with the BJP, for seeking the inclusion of Bhagavad Gita in curriculum for students.
The CM's dig came in response to Kumaraswamy's recent letter to Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan, requesting the inclusion of the Bhagavad Gita in the curriculum of students.
"After Kumaraswamy joined hands with the BJP for elections, he has become a Manuvadi," Siddaramaiah told reporters here after paying tributes to B R Ambedkar on his 69th death anniversary here.
ALSO READ: National Herald case: Shivakumar calls Delhi Police notice 'harassment'
Remembering Ambedkar, Siddaramaiah highlighted his contribution to the Constitution and his relentless fight to provide social justice.
The CM noted said fed up with social and caste system in Hinduism, and unable to reform it, Ambedkar accepted Buddhism.
He said, "Ambedkar, towards the end of his life, quit Hinduism and joined Buddhism. He was born in Hinduism, but cannot die in Hinduism, because he could not reform Hinduism, despite several efforts, so he accepted Buddhism."
