The Siddaramaiah-led Congress authorities in Karnataka plans to renew prosecution in 2022, difficult petitions towards police investigations into two instances during which non-public companies in Bangalore allegedly illegally collected voter knowledge in the course of the Bharatiya Janata Celebration authorities. Because of this petition, the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom has suspended the investigation from December 22, 2022.
The state authorities has appointed former lawyer basic Ravi Varma Kumar as particular prosecutor within the alleged voter knowledge theft case and is in search of to problem the stalled challenge. The Excessive Courtroom lately granted two weeks for the problem.
“The discovered particular counsel for the respondents, Prof. Ravi Varma Kumar, has sought two weeks’ time to file the objections within the case the place the objections haven’t but been filed and will probably be heard on deserves,” the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom had mentioned on February 4.
Kumar has been appointed as particular public prosecutor to facilitate the reopening of two instances registered with the Election Fee (EC) by Bengaluru police in November 2022 over alleged unlawful assortment of voter knowledge by non-public trusts.
Two FIRs have been registered after the EC authorities alleged that Chilme Training, Tradition, and Rural Improvement Belief, a non-public group, was illegally accumulating voter knowledge in Mahadevapura constituency and different elements of Bengaluru below the fee’s Systematic Voter Training and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme.
Forward of the 2023 meeting polls, the Congress had alleged that Chilme Group had hyperlinks with Bharatiya Janata Celebration leaders in Bengaluru and that the corporate had been contracted to gather voter knowledge as a part of an train to control electoral rolls by way of deletions and additions.
The investigation into the FIRs registered at Harsur Gate and Kadugodi police stations in Mahadevapura district was stayed in December 2022 after the Excessive Courtroom ordered an interim keep of the investigation on the criticism of the arrested Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and Chilme Belief officers.
The investigation has remained stalled since then, however the state authorities appointed Professor Ravi Varma Kumar as particular public prosecutor on November 27, 2025, in what seems to be an try to restart the probe.
The appointment was made within the backdrop of ‘ballot chori’ allegations raised by Chief of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in August 2025 for Mahadevapura meeting constituency and once more in September 2025 for Orland meeting constituency in Kalaburagi district.
A authorities order issued on November 27, 2025, stipulated that the particular public prosecutor would characterize the state in contesting the petition filed by the Chilme Belief on behalf of the Bengaluru police, which had been investigating the allegations earlier than the inquiry was discontinued.
Within the 2022 case, officers of Chilme Belief, in collusion with the Bangalore civic physique, allegedly created pretend identification paperwork for booth-level officers of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and carried out door-to-door assortment of voter knowledge below the guise of EC voter consciousness actions.
How did the suspicions floor?
Allegations of voter knowledge theft in Mahadevapura first surfaced in September 2022 after native NGOs raised issues that the Chilme Group was deploying non-public staff disguised as civil servants to hold out ECI’s SVEEP program, together with voter registration and linking of voter IDs with Aadhaar by way of the fee’s Garuda app.
Police have arrested 10 folks within the case, together with Chilme Enterprises director Ravikumar Krishnappa, three different firm officers and 4 BBMP income officers, for allegedly abetting the fraud. All suspects have been later launched.
The EC additionally directed the then Bangalore district commissioner and IAS officer Amran Aditya Biswas to conduct an administrative inquiry into complaints relating to misuse of voter consciousness actions and alleged knowledge assortment by non-public entities within the BBMP space.
The investigation report mentioned no election fraud or tampering with electoral rolls was detected in Shivajinagar, Chikpet and Mahadevapura constituencies, and there was no proof of intrusion or knowledge tampering with knowledge on ERO.web or the operation of the Garuda app.
Nonetheless, the investigation discovered that the BBMP had allowed Chilume Group to “illegally gather voter knowledge in an unauthorized non-public digital utility (Digital Sameeksha) and retailer it on servers overseas, thereby creating a possibility to unfairly revenue from private knowledge.”
Previous to the appointment of the particular public prosecutor, Congress employees from Mahadevapura constituency had filed a criticism in November 2025 alleging that their names have been illegally added to the voters’ record forward of the 2024 meeting polls.
Mr Mahadevapura additionally referred to Mr Gandhi’s presentation alleging vote theft in August 2025, during which he claimed that round 100,000 votes have been illegally added to the electoral roll of the constituency.
Congressman Y. Vinoda, 39, filed a criticism with Whitefield police on November 19, 2025, saying he was “deeply troubled” by the allegations that pretend voters have been added to the rolls by unknown officers and people.
Nonetheless, questions have arisen over the validity of the FIR registered on her criticism as solely the EC and its approved officers are empowered to lodge complaints relating to electoral roll irregularities after verification.
Within the Orlando constituency (the place a case of unlawful vote deletion flagged by Congress candidate BR Patil in 2023 was later highlighted by Gandhi on September 18, 2025), the native police registered an FIR after the EC discovered that the try to illegally delete 5,994 voters was real.
Karnataka CID Particular Investigation Group on December 19, 2025, ex-B.P.T. The chargesheet has been filed naming MLA Subhash Guttedar (74), his son Harshananda, shut aide Tiperudra, knowledge heart operators Akram Pasha and Aslam Pasha, colleague Md Ashfaq, and Bapi Adia, a youth from West Bengal who’s accused of offering an “OTP bypass” to entry ECI on-line providers.
Mr Patil, who raised the difficulty after being warned by occasion officers, gained the 2023 parliamentary election from Orlando state by a margin of 10,348 votes, defeating Mr Guttedal, who gained the seat by 697 votes in 2018.
