BENGALURU: The probe into the voter data theft case picked up pace as the police on Saturday evening detained one of the directors of Chilume NGO, which is accused of tampering with the data of voters. The police also questioned wives of Chilume directors for over 20 hours for allegedly helping their spouses in destroying evidence pertaining to the case.
The police said the director, Kempegowda, was detained on the outskirts of Bengaluru late Saturday evening for questioning. On Friday midnight, Shruthi, wife of Kempegowda and Aishwarya, wife of another accused Ravikumar, were picked up for questioning and quizzed till Saturday evening. Both women were let off after being issued notices to appear for questioning on Sunday. The police are hunting for Ravikumar.
Chilume Trust, engaged by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) exercise has been accused of tampering with voters data. The BBMP had filed a complaint at Halasuru Gate and Kadugodi police stations.
Two accused sent to 8-day police custody
“Both the directors are relatives and had set up the Chilume Trust in 2015. The directors allegedly took the digital video recorder (DVR) and other documents with them and fled,” said a police official. Shruthi, who has a three-month-old baby, was taken to a farmhouse at T Begur near Nelamangala for ‘mahazar’ as the directors had allegedly taken the documents to the farmhouse.
Meanwhile, the 37th ACMM Court in Bengaluru remanded two accused -- Dharmesh and Renuka Prasad -- in 8-day police custody on Saturday. As the raids were underway, BBMP Special Commissioner (Administration) S Rangappa said another accused, Lokesh, is absconding.