VIJAYAWADA: Alleging that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu resorted to cyber crime by facilitating access to the data of people of the State to private individuals, Leader of the Opposition Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has said that Chandrababu Naidu is trying to portray the ongoing data breach investigation by the Telangana police as confrontation between the AP-Telangana governments.
Reddy, who led a delegation of party leaders to Governor ESL Narasimhan in Hyderabad, told the media that they apprised the latter of how Naidu resorted to cyber crime in a systematic manner over the past two years to manage elections.
“We explained to the Governor how the first-of-its-kind cyber crime in the country was orchestrated by Naidu,’’ the YSRC chief said.
Reddy said that the confidential data pertaining to the people of the State including details of Aadhaar card, voter ID with colour photographs and bank account were available in the Sevamitra App of the TDP during the raids conducted on IT Grid India Private Limited in Hyderabad.
“Is this justified? Is it not a crime? Is it not invasion of privacy?’’ the YSRC chief questioned.
Reddy alleged that with the help of the sensitive data of people, the Sevamitra App is enabled with the findings of the government surveys like pulse survey and RTGS.
“The TDP leaders, who are registered with Sevamitra, are getting all this information on their tabs and visiting villages asking people whom they would vote for. They are removing the names of those who are not ready to vote for the TDP from the voters’ list. This exercise has been going on for the last two years. They are deleting the names of those who are not going to vote for the TDP and enrolling double votes of TDP sympathisers,’’ the Opposition Leader alleged.
The YSRC chief said they had studied the electoral rolls and found that 56 lakh votes are either double or duplicate. “We took up the issue with Chief Election Commission in September 2018, but to our surprise, the number of bogus votes increased to 59 lakh by January 2019. We once again met the CEC and as a follow-up action, we are filing Form-7 for deletion of bogus votes,’’ Jagan said.
He added that they have been cooperating with the Election Commission by filing Form-7, but the State government is harassing the YSRC leaders for filing the forms.“It is our right to enrol voters and delete bogus votes. Applying Form- 7 will not result in immediate deletion of votes. The EC will decide after a thorough enquiry and verification. In fact, we are extending cooperation to the EC,’’ Jagan said.
“Naidu, in a bid to see that the bogus votes are not deleted, is launching counter attack on us saying that we have committed a crime by filing Form- 7. It is Naidu who had committed theft of data which is nothing but cyber crime,’’ Jagan said adding that al these offences are punishable.
“Naidu is not fit to continue as Chief Minister even for a minute. We have informed this to the Governor and we will approach the Election Commission once again,’’ Jagan said, adding that he will urge the EC to register cases against Naidu for his offences. “All these are punishable crimes. The CM and his son Nara Lokesh (the IT Minister) should be sent to jail for these crimes,’’ Jagan said.
The YSRC chief also lashed out at Naidu for trying to portray the ongoing investigation into data breach as confrontation between Telangana and AP. “Since the offence took place in Hyderabad, where the App’s office is located, a case has been registered there. Naidu is trying to hinder the investigation by raking up AP-TS sentiments,’’ Jagan said.