Returning officers to be questioned over votegate

The votegate row took a curious turn on Saturday as the police began questioning returning officers (ROs) and arrested the brother of the founder of Chilume Educational, Cultural and Rural Development Institute, the NGO at the heart of the scandal.

The Malleswaram-based private entity is accused of collecting critical voter data from households on the basis of government orders that allowed it to only carry out a voter awareness programme. It allegedly hired workers from different parts of Karnataka and gave them identity cards as booth-level officers (BLOs) for collecting voter data in the guise of a household survey. The data was later fed into a private portal. The scandal has put the BJP government on the backfoot.

The police questioned the RO of the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency on Saturday. They also served notices on the ROs of 27 other Assembly constituencies in the city asking them to appear for questioning in the coming days.

Also Read: Votegate: Congress goes to EC, says Bommai is 'kingpin'

The returning officers will be questioned about how their signatures and seals appeared on the ID cards issued to Chilume staff. Police want to find out who put these crucial signatures and seals on cards issued to a private entity. They also believe that Chilume collected voter data with the eventual aim of selling it to candidates in the 2023 Assembly elections, sources said.

In a separate development, police arrested Kempegowda, the brother of the NGO's founder Ravi Kumar, from Sidlaghatta, Chikkaballapur district, on Saturday evening. Further, they questioned Kumar's wife Aishwarya for several hours before letting her go and summoning her again on Sunday. Aishwarya is also a director at Chilume. Police are also searching for her husband.

Bengaluru police have registered two FIRs in connection with the scandal and arrested three people so far. Two others, Dharmesh and Renuka Prasad, were arrested on Friday night. A court on Saturday remanded them in police custody for eight days.

This apart, police also sent the BBMP a detailed questionnaire consisting of questions about when the work orders were given to Chilume, the roles and responsibilities assigned to it, why and how the NGO's staff were sent in the company of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to collect voter data and details of all the votes that were added or deleted after Chilume came into the picture.

Police also searched the NGO's office in Malleswaram and seized a cash counting machine, a printer, hard disks, accounts files and other incriminating materials. The seized materials are being verified.