Voter ID scam unearthed

In a joint operation, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) and the Peenya police busted a voter ID scam and arrested five persons on the charge of uploading voter IDs on the official Election Commission website. The accused have been identified as C.J. Naveen Kumar, 30, Sanjay Kumar, 29, N. Sachin, 26, Devraj, 25 and Karisiddeshwara 34.

Of them, Naveen and Sanjay are computer operators working in the tahsildar office in North Division on contract basis.

After completion of their contract, the duo started a cyber cafe in Bagalagunte and started targeting people who failed to get their names included in the electoral list.

According to the police, the accused got hold of the user id and password of officials, who were part of the enrolment drive and took anywhere between ₹500 to ₹ 1,000 from people wanting a voter id. They uploaded the details of the people into the Eelection Commission’s website and generated the ids.

The scam came to light when a few officials in-charge of the voter ID revised list noticed unauthorised and illegal entries and filed a complaint with the cyber crime police.

The police track down the accused based on the IP address and arrested them. The police are also probing whether the accused have any political affiliations.