TDP Uses App To Steal Voter Information, Hyderabad IT Firm Raided

Hyderabad: A city -based IT company by the name IT Grids Private Limited located in Madhapur was raided by the Hyderabad Police on Saturday. Based on a complaint filed by a data analyst specialist and entrepreneur named Thummala Lokeswara Reddy, he said that in the course of a study about the election campaigning in Andhra Pradesh, he discovered that the Telugu Desam Party cadre were using specific software applications to source voter information and had allegedly stolen the data.

As per his complaint, he said that a company name IT Grids had developed an application called Sevamitra—a tab and mobile-based software application meant for interacting with voters. The TDP was using this app for its electoral prospects and had also given the details of Sevamitra app in its Party official website and Facebook Page. The app was meant for TDPs registered party members to gather voters' data in AP.

Through the app the government of AP had apparently used the services of another vizag based company called Bluefrog Mobile Technologies to implement government schemes and functions of AP.

Bluefrog Technologies was given access to huge amount of official data in respect of the beneficiaries of various government schemes and private data of individuals.

The details of beneficiaries, which included their demographic, geographic and other identification features such as name, age, gender, address, Aadhaar number were shared with the app.

Apart from this data from AP Smart Pulse Survey, State Resident Data Hub, Praja Sadhikara Vedika (managed by Karvy Data Management Services Ltd., Hyd) and IVRS surveys conducted by the AP government was also allegedly shared.

The complainant had also alleged that the data acquired was in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines.

It was also alleged that the Party was making wrongful use of this data to analyse that were for and against the government. Based on these details they had apparently deleted hundreds and thousands of names of voters, he alleged.

The Madhapur police have seized computers and peripherals from the company's office premises and a filed a criminal case of conspiracy, cheating, data theft under the IT Act, for allegedly stealing official data of beneficiaries from the AP government database and using it for manipulation of polls in that state.

About IT Grids Pvt. Ltd.

Ashok Dakavaram the founder of the company is a UK returned entrepreneur specialising in Big Data. He started a Web site called partyanalyst.com and also developed a software which could filter information related to election information of more than 13 states. In an interview to Hindubusinessline.com he said that an amount of Rs 1.5 lakh was charged from candidates to gain basic data about a constituency

He also mentioned that the company was into conducting exclusive surveys for candidates and provide data on different parties and their performances in the elections in the past. The tool apparently was also useful for media firms to analyse trends ahead, or after, the polls.

Also Read: It’s Only In AP That Police Is Meant To Protect Thieves: Vijayasai Reddy