Karnataka: Police conduct raid on Chilume over 'voter data theft'

Police conducted a raid on Chilume organisation at Malleshwar in Karnataka on Friday regarding the alleged electoral data theft.

Bengaluru: After a complaint was lodged at the Halasuru Gate Police Station against Chilume Organisation regarding the alleged electoral data theft, police conducted a raid on Chilume at Malleshwar on Friday. Congress lodged a complaint on Thursday alleging that personal information was being collected from voters' IDs.

The police detained four people working in the Chilume organisation and are searching for Krishnappa Ravikumar, the company's director. Sudhakar, the business head of the organisation, Rakshit, the case worker, Renuka Prasad and Dharmesh, who were working as polling booth officials, were detained and interrogated. Meanwhile, a team led by Cubbon Park ACP Narayanaswamy, raided Chilume's office and is checking the files. Opposition leader Siddaramiah in a series of tweets charged the government with betraying people by allegedly "stealing the voter information and illegally collecting their personal data".

"The Bengaluru police registered a case against an agent named Lokesh, who works with Chilume for a salary of Rs 20,000, in the #OperationVoter scam. Is this 40% @BSBommai Sarkara trying to save their corrupt ministers by making an ordinary employee a scapegoat?," tweeted Siddaramaiah. He said, "We demand High Court Chief Justice monitor the judicial probe to expose the real culprits behind the #OperationVoter scam. Why is the govt afraid of initiating a judicial probe? Why is @BSBommai in a hurry to brush the case off?”