BENGALURU — The Karnataka Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing alleged voter list irregularities in the Aland Assembly constituency has found that a data centre operator was paid Rs 80 for each fraudulent voter deletion, Indian Express reported.
The Aland case is among those cited by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his ‘vote chori’ allegations against the BJP.
According to the SIT, a total of 6,018 applications for voter name deletions were submitted between December 2022 and February 2023, amounting to an estimated Rs 4.8 lakh in payments. Last week, the SIT raided properties linked to BJP leader Subhash Guttedar, who lost from Aland in 2023 to Congress’s B. R. Patil.
The SIT formally took over the probe from CID’s cybercrime unit on September 26. It identified a data centre in Kalaburagi district headquarters as the hub from which the deletion requests were sent.
Investigators traced the initial irregularities to a local resident, Mohammed Ashfaq, whose involvement surfaced in February 2023. Ashfaq was questioned but later released after he claimed innocence and promised to hand over his electronic devices.
Meanwhile, on October 17, the team conducted searches at the residences of Guttedar, his sons Harshananda and Santhosh, and their chartered accountant Mallikarjun Mahantagol.
Officers seized over seven laptops and multiple mobile phones during the raids and are now tracing the source of funds used for the alleged payouts.
The SIT is also investigating how the data centre operators gained unauthorized access to the Election Commission (EC) portal to submit fake voter deletion requests.
As reported by The Indian Express, neither the officials whose credentials were used nor the affected voters were aware of the fraudulent activity.
Guttedar, a four-time MLA from Aland, has denied any involvement in the voter deletion scheme. He alleged that his rival, B. R. Patil, made the accusations for personal and political gain. “Patil wants to become a minister and is trying to curry favour with Rahul Gandhi by making these baseless charges,” Guttedar said.
The SIT’s investigation into the voter list manipulation case is ongoing.
