Bengaluru civic body blacklists Chilume Trust after voter data theft: Report

Bengaluru civic body BBMP on Tuesday blacklisted Chilume Trust, the organisation behind alleged data theft of thousands of voters in the Karnataka capital.

Bengaluru's civic administrative body, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), on Tuesday blacklisted the NGO - Chilume Trust - after it was revealed that it impersonated BBMP officials and collected personal information from thousands of voters under the guise of spreading awareness.

BBMP had earlier revoked permissions given to the Trust to conduct a door-to-door survey. (Wikimedia Commonns)

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The Chilume Educational, Cultural and Rural Development Trust had earlier conducted a survey that was facilitated by a BBMP order which permitted it to go door-to-door and “spread awareness” on how to apply for a Voters ID online. It later came to be known that the NGO members posed as government officials and obtained private information - from caste to marital status - from the public. This triggered a major political slugfest in the poll-bound state.

In this light, BBMP chief Tushar Giri Nath on Tuesday passed an order which blacklisted the Trust and forbade it from participating in any citizen awareness programmes organised by it, the Deccan Herald reported. Other firms run by Chilume's heads were also blacklisted.

The BBMP had revoked permissions given to the Trust in mid-November after a report uncovered that members of the organisation were equipped with copies of a 'government order' and fake ID cards for hundreds of agents that claimed they were 'booth level officers'. The data theft and privacy breach had also prompted the Election Commission of India (EC) to suspend two poll officials from Karnataka, orders of which were revoked on Sunday.