Govt Ordered Quick Probe Into Voter Data Theft: CM; Congress Blames BJP

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said the government promptly initiated a police inquiry into the alleged theft of voter data.                                                                                                    

Bommai said this after Congress began attacking him and demanding his resignation over the case. The Chief Minister told the Karnataka High Court to take up the case on its own. The BJP government said the probe should be initiated by a sitting judge.

“They (Congress) keep demanding a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge. When they were in power, they had once ordered a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge into the Bangalore Development Authority case which helped them come clean, so they keep demanding,” Bommai said.

“We quickly booked a criminal case and ordered a police inquiry into the case. Yesterday (Friday), a search was made and today the person was arrested. Further steps will be promptly taken,” he told reporters in Mangaluru, over 370 km from here.

Meanwhile, Congress's Karnataka unit lodged a fresh complaint with the chief electoral officer Manoj Kumar Meena alleging that electoral fraud, malpractice, and manipulation of voters' list was done by the Chief Minister, State Higher Education Minister Dr. C N Ashwath Narayan, the district election officer and chief commissioner of the Bengaluru Bruhat Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Tushar Girinath and the directors of Chilume Trust.

Later, the State Congress president D K Shivakumar alleged that the Chilume Trust, which is in the middle of the controversy, has the password of the electoral roll software, which should remain only with the BBMP officials.

He charged the BJP government with involvement in the scam. "I appeal to the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court with folded hands on behalf of the voters of Karnataka to take up on the own, just as you intervened during the deaths due to oxygen shortage,” Shivakumar told reporters after submitting a complaint to the chief electoral officer of Karnataka Manoj Kumar Meena.

The Congress's State chief alleged that a note-counting machine and a letterhead of a BJP leader were found at Chilume’s office, which police raided after getting the complaint.

“When it was a not-for-profit organization, how come there was a note-counting machine? Is black money being converted into white?” he sought to know.

At a press conference, the Congress national general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged Chief Minister was the kingpin of the scam.

“The VoterGate or voter data theft scam has exposed Basavaraj Bommai as the real kingpin,” he said.

He said he sought to know why no FIR has been lodged against the Chief Minister who is in charge of the Bengaluru city and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Chief Commissioner Tushargiri Nath.

The Congress general secretary wondered why a booth-level officer, appointed by Chilume Trust, was booked when he was a whistle-blower.

He aids Bommai termed the charges against him as baseless, but then a case was registered in this connection.

“Tell me which police officer has the power, audacity, or authority to investigate an FIR allegation that was rejected by his own Chief Minister? Can the officer go against the Chief Minister? And what is the use of a farcical probe that Bommai says he is conducting," Surjewala said.

The Congress leader sought to know also as to who funded Chilume Trust to hire so many people to collect voter data across the city.

(Inputs from PTI)