The Madras High Court has directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to file a detailed report on the Puducherry BJP unit’s alleged involvement in accessing the Aadhar details of citizens to send campaign messages.
The ECI is to submit the report within two days, a report stated.
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The president of the Puducherry unit of the Democratic Youth Foundation of India (DYFI) had filed a petition in the Madras High Court alleging that local BJP candidates had secured the cell phone numbers from the Unique Identification Authority of India to create booth-level WhatsApp groups in their respective constituencies.
The petitioner also said that 952 WhatsApp groups with details of all voters details are operating at present.
These candidates are using these WhatsApp groups for campaigning purposes to garner votes.
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The Madras High Court observed that it was a serious charge and the commission cannot pass on the responsibility of investigating the matter to the cyber cell authorities.
The ECI had forwarded the complaint it received from the petitioner to the Cyber Crime Cell for inquiry.
The petition also mentioned that the BJP now has access to the names, election booths and constituencies of voters.
The counsel for the petitioner MN Sumathy sought an interim stay from the Madras High Court to restrain the BJP candidates from campaigning in this manner.