Thiruvananthapuram: Ramesh Chennithala is accused of leaking complete details of over 2.5 crore voters in state together with their photographs to a U.S. based company. The voter list was passed to an American company in Singapore for reportedly bringing out duplicate entries in the electoral roll.
On Wednesday, Chennithala registered a website named “Operation Twins.com”. The site is logged to server of the said American company whose IP is 184.168.121.38.- an address belonging to a web service provider in Singapore.
The BJP govt at centre too avails services of this company for its various schemes and programmes. Two weeks ago, the centre’s small-scale industries development programme “ Bharat E-Conclave 2021" was organised by this company. Incidentally, this company faces charges from a California company for changing their domain name without mandated permission.
Passing information provided by the Election Commission to foreign entities without its permission amounts to serious offence and the Opposition Leader has used his official machinery for the purpose which is violation of the election code of conduct too. The website in question has portrayed twin brothers and similar-looking individuals as fake voters.
The site released 4.34 lakh names in the first round. The voters’ data was reportedly handed over to the foreign company for evaluating personal details and sorting on that line. It is unclear what permission the company likely sought to store data pertaining to a country like India that has laws in place to guard its “sensitive data.” The photographs of Kerala voters were run through image analyzing/numbering application for processing and subsequent upload onto site - an act that according to experts, amounts to very serious offence.
Offence Chargeable
The act of depicting twin brothers as one and further portraying people with similar looks as fake voters could attract charges under section 66 under IT Act. Legal experts also point out that Chennithala could be charged under Police Act(section 120 ) too for defamation using social media.
Meanwhile, several individuals have approached police to lodge complaints against being portrayed as frauds. Earlier Chennithala had announced at a press conference that he would publish duplication details out on website. The statement could form basis for charges against him for identity theft under IT Act.
Should eximine violations: M.A. Baby
The government and legal experts who cite violations in Chennithala’s matter should look into the incident, said MA Baby adding that, Election Commission will examine the occurrence of repetitive entries. The allegation that LDF is responsible for electoral duplication is foolish, MA Baby added.
Hundreds of Twins Portrayed as Fraud Voters
Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala has portrayed hundreds of twins as fraudulent voters on his website, whichin fact form bulk of Chennithala’s ‘fraud voters list”. One youth in this category has lodged complaint with police in Palakkad and there are reports of several following suit. Also made out to be frauds are, scores of people with identical names.
T Arun(28), son of Venugopal residing in Thekinkattil Veedu in Ottapalam’s Thottkkara send his complaint to the police chief. His twin brother T. Varun too has vote with booth no. 135 in Ottapalam and the website www. operationtwins.com published Arun’s name in its list of fraud voters triggering a flood of ridicule rolling in from social media.
Similarly, in Kanhangad, MA Araf, daughter of Salam residing in Panathoor; MA Ameer; Akshaya from 154 booth in Kothamangalam; students at Aluva’s Thuruthuli in Kombathuveetil, KB Akshay and KB Ajay; Abhay in booth 39 at Kaipamangalam; TS Amal, Keerthana from 134 booth in Wadakancherry; Ria Thomas from 2nd set, Sheema Thomas are all depicted wrongly as fraud voters.
Also made out as duplications are Babu in the 3rd set of booth 3 at Kaipamangalam and Babu at 8th booth there, both of who belong to different religions. In Thaiparambu’s Thalampara, two friends S Jinesh and S Suresh, VV Rishnu, VV Jitin are all listed as double entries. Twins Athulya and Amulya from 141 booth in Balussery too are made out to be fraud voters.
Genuinely Fraud Voter Names Kept Under Wraps
Genuine double entries pertaining to Congress leaders and their relatives are curiously absent from Chennithala’s list. UDF Perumbavoor candidate Eldos Kunnipally has vote in Kunnupally and Muvattupuzha. Padmaja Venugopal has vote in Thrissur’s Thrikkekara too and although Chennithala’s mother Devakiamma has two votes, the site mentions just one. Even so, duplicate entries pertaining to relatives of the main accused in Palarivattom flyover scam, Ebrahim Kunju, is displayed on Chennithala’s site. UDF’s Vaikom candidate and KPCC Secretary PR Thomas has votes both in Kottayam and Paravur.
