New Delhi: On Monday, activist Saket Gokhale released a letter dated March 12, 2020, written by the Election Commission of India to the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi, directing it to “display the electoral roll databases along with the images of the electors” of the North East Delhi parliamentary constituency to personnel of the Delhi police, in its office.The 1st line of the order itself admits that voter lists shared with police CANNOT contain photos. ECI broke these rules & made these full voter lists WITH PHOTOS available to police after the Delhi pogrom.This is an easy way to identify minorities living in any area. (2/3)— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) August 24, 2020 According to this letter, the Delhi Police had requested the state Chief Electoral Officer to share its digital database so that it could access the photographs of voters in the Shahdara, North-East and East Delhi districts. The stated purpose was to match them with the faces of the February violence perpetrators, captured on CCTV and other video footage available with the investigating team of the Delhi riots. Police commissioner S.N. Shrivastava had also written to the poll panel for the same.As per a report in The Indian Express, a similar request was also made to the transport department, which has even shared photographs from driving licences with the police. These were run through a software to match with the photographs of alleged suspects.According to the revised terms and conditions for sharing of electoral roll databases with the state Election Commission and other government departments, “The government department that seeks data can be provided CDs of the electoral rolls in PDF format without the image of electors.”“For sharing roll databases along with photographs of the electors to other government departments, due to citizen privacy issues, special permission of the ECI will be taken case by case,” the terms and conditions state.Also read: HC Orders Police to Protect Witness in Delhi Riots Cases; Police Still ‘Examining’ ThreatIt further specifies that the database is to be provided to the department only for the purpose indicated in their request letter. The full database of the state or Union Territory or district or assembly constituency need not be supplied.While Gokhale’s letter shows that the ECI had permitted display of electoral roll along with the images, the ECI said that only physical inspection of the roll had been permitted. “The Delhi Police wanted to check our database to verify their inputs and information. If an agency wants us to cooperate in an investigation, we cannot be seen to be obstructing it. But it was ensured that we didn’t deviate from our established stand on sharing our database with the police. Only a physical inspection was permitted. Copies (of the electoral roll) were not allowed to be shared,” a source in the poll panel told The Indian Express.The ECI’s direction to the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer to allow the police to see the roll in its office is being considered as the reason why Delhi police did not follow up on its own request.As per sources, the police department wanted to procure a soft copy of the electoral roll so as to be able to use a software to match the faces in the electoral roll with its list of riot suspects.Also read: Delhi Riots: The Link Between Misinformation and RadicalisationOn Monday evening, the Election Commission of India issued a press statement clarifying that it has not in any way deviated from the original guidelines of 2008 regarding sharing of electoral roll and EPIC data base with various government departments. It also sought to impress that clarificatory orders of 2020, stating that the State Election Commissions shall not share the electoral roll database provided by the CEOs to any other organisation or agency, had been adhered to.If @SpokespersonECI claims they have clear guidelines on not sharing data with any agencies, then I challenge them to contest the validity of the letter to CEO Delhi about the Delhi pogrom investigation.So tell us ECI – was this your letter or not?Sadly, records don’t lie. pic.twitter.com/qg3Ef8dlwl— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) August 24, 2020“It also needs to be stated that as far as criminal investigations by regulatory departments/enforcement agencies is concerned, it is under their own extant Acts, Rules and guidelines, which in any case can be challenged in the Hon’ble Courts of law. In fact, the entire super structure of criminal justice system is erected on this. It is only when the Model Code of Conduct is enforced that Election Commission invariably takes note of any such event(s)/ incident(s), which have the potential of disturbing and/ or disrupting the smooth conduct of electoral process and ECI does not interfere in the day to day functioning of the regulatory departments/enforcement agencies,” reads the ECI’s press release.