THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP has lodged a complaint against opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala for leaking data on voters by publishing it on a website hosted by a Singapore-based company. BJP state general secretary George Kurian has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission alleging that the release of personal information of citizens was a serious offense that would affect national security.

The voters' list contains basic information about the voters. The Election Commission is the custodian of that information. During the election process, there were many complaints about double voting. KPCC created a website to find double votes. The website claimed that there were 4,34,000 double votes when the Election Commission found that there were 38,000 double votes. Details of people with double votes were published on the website. Ramesh Chennithala handed over the information to the Singapore-based company from the collection of the Election Commission. George Kurian said in the complaint that this was a leak of the personal information of Indian citizens.

The opposition leader and the KPCC did this without the permission of the Election Commission, which owns the voter list. Information exchange standards have not been met. Every voter has the right to keep their personal information confidential. Based on the Puttaswamy case heard by the Supreme Court in 2017, it is clear that Ramesh Chennithala and the KPCC have violated civil liberties by handing over voters' personal information to a foreign company, the complaint said. The complaint also stated that this was against the data collection policy.