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Hyderabad: Cops say many names were taken off voter list

Claim to have evidence about deletion by party persons.

Hyderabad: Hyderabad city police commissioner Anjani Kumar said on Wednesday that there is enough evidence to show that details of Andhra Pradesh voters who do not support the Telugu Desam, and are currently not living in their constituencies, were deleted by “key persons” associated with the political party.

The deletion of voters’ names was done following a data analysis done by IT Grids India Pvt Ltd, a company located in Hyderabad, which developed an application called Seva Mitra to collect personal information of AP citizens.

The police investigating the allegation of deletion of voters from electoral rolls have evidence to prove the deletion was based on political preference and affiliation of voters, mostly non-TD supporters.

“There is an element of truth in the complaint and inquiries revealed the criminality involved. Based on that, a case was registered,” said Commissioner Anjani Kumar.

IT Grids India Pvt Ltd hired people to conduct surveys in AP to find out the political affiliation, caste, and other details of voters. This information was given to workers of the TD for a field enquiry and collecting Aadhaar card particulars, and sent to key persons of the party with the proposal that these names be deleted.

Explaining the modus operandi of IT Grids and Seva Mitra, Mr Kumar said, “The IT company developed a questionnaire to learn the preferences of every citizen in AP and shared the information with TD booth-level Seva Mitra conveners, who again took up a field-level enquiry and then collected Aadhaar card details along with political party preferences.

“The data collected was saved in the Seva Mitra application and was shared with the IT company which conducted an analysis and forwarded it to a ‘key person’ of the party, who falsified the voter information with an intention to delete the voter details, with the help of officials who prepare the list.” During investigation, the police found that the details of voters who have revealed their political preference for a party other than the TD, and those who are not living in their constituencies, were deleted.

The police have collected evidence supporting their claims and shared the same on Wednesday.

“Kandula Rangareddy, Kandula Nagamani, both natives of AP who are currently living in Amberpet have voter ID cards, but their details were deleted. Another two persons, V. Venugopal Reddy and Nagaveni, have their voter IDs, but their details are deleted. There are several such cases identified during the probe. The total number of deleted voters has to be ascertained,” Mr Kumar said.

Who is the key person?
The information collected by IT Grids India Pvt Ltd and by TD activists was processed and sent to a ‘key person’ who looks after the affairs of the TD, who further proposed the deletion of the voter details through the concerned officials. This key person has to be identified and will be issued notices as part of the probe, said the police.

Four teams of the Hyderabad police are on the job of tracing D. Ashok, director of the IT company facing allegations of data breach. He is said to be taking shelter in Andhra Pradesh. Notices have been served to him to surrender before the police.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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