The Crime Branch (CB) has opened an investigation on a complaint filed by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Kerala, that electoral roll data was illegally removed from a laptop in the CEO's office in Thiruvananthapuram.
The complaint, which seeks a probe into the possibility of a conspiracy behind the incident, was filed by Joint Chief Electoral Officer Krishnadasan P. two days ago. The Crime Branch registered the FIR on Friday.
The voters’ list prepared for the Assembly polls in Kerala had been the subject of a raging controversy ahead of the April 6 elections. Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, who was Leader of Opposition at the time, had levelled the allegation, with entries from the list as 'proof', that more than four lakh double entries had crept into the rolls.
The Election Commission had later informed the Kerala High Court that it could detect only 38,586 demographically similar entries (DSEs) and that sufficient safeguards were in place to prevent bogus voting.
CEO Teeka Ram Meena's office has lodged the complaint now following a direction from the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The commission is understood to have issued the direction on the basis of a report submitted by C-DAC which looked into the purported leak. The C-DAC report had mentioned the suspicion that the data may have been removed from the equipment used by Keltron staff deputed to the CEO's office, sources said.
Keltron is the State-level agency aiding data management and security for the commission, under the supervision of C-DAC at the CEO's office. Further, Mr. Meena's office has also decided not to renew the contract with Keltron as per a direction from the commission. The contract had ended on June 30.
