More evidence has emerged to show that the ruling party in Karnataka played a key role in enabling Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute that indulged in massive voter data theft in Bengaluru, which was exposed by TNM and Pratidvani after a nearly three-month investigation. In a new development, a TNM source who approached Chilume posing as a job-seeker, came away with the discovery that the NGO was providing training to its field workers on how to map neighbourhoods and collect voters’ data inside the Hongasandra BJP ward office that is primarily used by the aspirants for the corporator post. Till September 2020, the councillor for the ward was BJP’s Bharathi Ramachandra and the office currently has a board saying- Hongasandra ward- MLA office. Satish Reddy, again belonging to the ruling BJP is the Bommanahalli MLA.
The TNM source went undercover to verify claims that Chilume’s field agents were continuing with illegal voter data collection even after the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) ordered them to stop their operation. As reported by TNM earlier, the BBMP hurriedly cancelled the permission to the NGO on November 2 after TNM started investigating the electoral fraud. We have now managed to establish that the operation was continuing without a change at least till November 17.
This revelation comes on the back of another expose by TNM showing financial transactions between BJP leader and former MLA Nandiesha Reddy and the NGO. The NGO is at the centre of a political storm after a TNM expose showing how it misused an order of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) permitting it to conduct awareness programs for voters, and instead deployed hundreds of field agents to collect sensitive information from thousands of voters across the city.
Based on the tip-off that Chilume was recruiting fresh field agents in defiance of the BBMP’s cancellation order, our source visited the Malleshwaram office of the NGO for the first time on November 12 under the guise of seeking a job. A woman who interviewed him said he was selected for the job after just a few basic questions. “I told her I was a B.Com dropout. She asked me if I had a smartphone, a motorbike and a driving licence. When I said I did, she said I was selected,” the source said. The woman told him that he would be paid a monthly salary of Rs 23,000 plus incentives, as well as a fuel allowance of Rs 2,000 for the job.
The messages that TNM source got from Chilume co-ordinators
He then got a phone call on November 16 from the same woman asking him to join a new batch for training the next day. In the phone call (we have a recording) the Chilume executive explained that he would have to do ‘survey work’. She then asked him to get in touch with a supervisor who would take things further, and texted him the location of the training centre in the Hongasandra area of South Bengaluru. When he reached the location the next day, he was surprised to find that the training was being held in the office of the BJP’s Bommasandra MLA Satish Reddy. He took photographs of the office from inside and outside. The photos clearly show a large poster with the image of Satish Reddy on the main window of the office.
Photos of the meeting clicked by TNM's source
Photos of the building clicked by TNM's source
Inside the office, the source described hectic activity. He said that he was part of a batch of 30 fresh recruits who were given intensive training in map making on November 17 at the BJP ward office. “We were shown how to download the outline maps of neighbourhoods from the internet and how to fill them out. We were given codes for each type of property based on whether it was vacant or under construction, occupied by the owner or a tenant,” he said. They were also given a blue book in which they had to once again fill out the residents' data onto a form. Similar maps and books were discovered by TNM when we first investigated the scam.
As our source and the new recruits were being trained, another batch of around 20 people came to the MLA’s office. “They were field workers who had already been trained. They came in for a briefing around 10 am and then left for the survey,” he said. According to the source, the atmosphere at the office became tense after Kannada TV channels started headlining the data theft story that morning. “Around 12.30 pm, all the 20 people who had gone for a survey returned to the office, and after a brief discussion, they all dispersed. Our supervisors then came to us and said that there has been some technical issue because of which the work could not be carried out,” he said. The batch of recruits was told that they would be informed when they can resume their training and asked to disperse.
On November 19, our source made another call to his supervisor and asked about the job saying he had heard about the police raids on the offices of Chilume. The supervisor sought to reassure him and said that there was nothing to worry. The supervisor said that there have been some minor problems and operations would resume soon. However, since then, all the numbers except one have been switched off. Anil, a supervisor who works with Chilume confirmed the session in the Hongasandra office. “We were giving training for mapping work,” he said. Chilume had deployed hundreds of workers across Bengaluru to map areas and mark occupied and vacant houses and commercial buildings.
When asked about the training in the ward office, Satish Reddy said he was unaware of any such activity. When TNM further questioned whether the office was being used by anybody without his permission for the training, he said many people visit the office and he does not know about the training.
The BJP meanwhile has pointed a finger at the Congress and released a government order from 2017. The letter was seemingly in response to one written by Chilume to the Tahsildar of KR Puram in Bengaluru East, saying it will handle electoral revision and related work for 305 polling booths of Mahadevapura constituency through the trust. The letter directed the NGO to conduct election work as per the orders of the election and district officials, and to take along Booth Level Officers in the 94 rural polling booths and fill up empty roles.
This story is a part of TNM’s series on Voter Fraud Investigation.