In a significant legal move, the Congress government in Karnataka has taken a decisive step to reignite a stalled investigation into a contentious case of alleged illegal voter data collection. The state has appointed a special counsel with the explicit aim of seeking the withdrawal of a court-imposed stay on a police probe from December 2022.
Special Counsel Appointed to Challenge Court Stay
The Karnataka government, on November 27, 2025, appointed former state advocate general Prof Ravivarma Kumar as the special counsel. His primary task is to facilitate the revival of investigations into two specific cases. These cases were originally registered by the Bengaluru police in November 2022 following a directive from the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The FIRs centered on allegations that a private entity, the Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Trust, was illegally collecting voters' data. This activity was reportedly carried out in the Mahadevapura constituency and other parts of Bengaluru. The trust was allegedly operating under the guise of the ECI's Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme.
The Genesis of the Allegations and Political Fallout
In the lead-up to the 2023 state Assembly elections, the Congress party had leveled serious accusations. They claimed the Chilume Group had connections with BJP leaders in Bengaluru and was awarded voter data collection work as part of a scheme to manipulate electoral rolls through deletions and additions.
However, the probe into the FIRs registered at Halsurgate and Kadugodi police stations was halted shortly after it began. In December 2022, the Karnataka High Court imposed an interim stay on the investigation. This stay came in response to petitions filed by arrested electoral registration officers and officials of the Chilume Trust.
The government's recent action to appoint a special counsel gained momentum after allegations of "vote chori" (vote theft) were raised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. He made these claims in August 2025 regarding the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency and again in September 2025 concerning the Aland Assembly constituency in Kalaburagi district.
Details of the 2022 Case and Inquiry Findings
The core allegations from 2022 are grave. Officials of the Chilume Trust are accused of conspiring with Bengaluru city officials to create fake identity cards of booth-level officers (BLOs) of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Using these fake credentials, private workers allegedly went door-to-door collecting voter data, pretending to conduct voter awareness work for the ECI.
The scandal came to light in September 2022 after a local NGO raised the alarm. The police subsequently arrested 10 individuals, including the director of Chilume Enterprises, Ravikumar Krishnappa, three others from the firm, and four BBMP revenue officials. All accused were later released.
Concurrently, the ECI ordered an administrative inquiry. The inquiry report, submitted by the then regional commissioner, noted that no electoral fraud or manipulation of the electoral roll was detected in the three constituencies examined—Shivajinagar, Chickpet, and Mahadevapura. It also found no evidence of intrusion into ECI's official systems.
However, the probe did find that the BBMP allowed the Chilume Group to illegally collect voter data on an unauthorized private app called 'Digital Sameeksha' and store this data on a foreign server, creating potential for misuse of personal data.
In a related development, a Congress worker from Mahadevapura, Y Vinoda, filed a complaint in November 2025. She alleged illegal addition of names to voter lists in the region before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. This complaint aligns with Rahul Gandhi's earlier claim that 1 lakh votes were illegally added to Mahadevapura's lists.
The situation in the Aland constituency took a different legal path. There, the local police registered an FIR based on a complaint by an election officer after the EC verified allegations of attempted illegal deletion of 5,994 voters. The Karnataka CID's Special Investigation Team filed a chargesheet on December 19, 2025, against former BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar, his son Harshananda, and others.
The political impact in Aland was clear. Congress candidate B R Patil, who was alerted to the deletions, won the 2023 election by a margin of 10,348 votes, defeating Subhash Guttedar, who had won the seat narrowly in 2018 by only 697 votes.
The appointment of Prof Ravivarma Kumar signals the state government's intent to pursue the legal process to its conclusion. Government sources indicate this move is part of a concerted effort to ensure the investigation reaches a definitive end, potentially setting a significant precedent for electoral integrity cases in the state.
