A Karnataka Police SIT has uncovered a voter deletion scam in Aland constituency, where Rs 80 was paid per fake application — totalling over Rs 4.8 lakh for 6,018 fraudulent deletions.
Only 24 of the deletions were genuine; the rest were allegedly coordinated by local operators using fake mobile numbers and stolen Election Commission portal credentials.
Raids at properties linked to former MLA Subhash Guttedar yielded electronic evidence, as investigators probe possible political links and the funding behind the operation.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka Police has uncovered a voter deletion scam in the Aland assembly constituency, revealing that Rs 80 was paid for each fraudulent application to remove names from the electoral rolls ahead of the 2023 state elections. Investigators say the manipulation was systematic, involving thousands of false deletion requests filed through the Election Commission’s online portal.
Between December 2022 and February 2023, 6,018 voter deletion applications were submitted from the constituency. The SIT found that only 24 of these were genuine cases, where the voters had actually moved out of the area. At Rs 80 per application, the total payout for the fraudulent deletions is estimated to be around Rs 4.8 lakh. Officials say the operation was coordinated from a data centre in Kalaburagi district.
The SIT has identified two key suspects — Mohammed Ashfaq and his associate Md Akram — who allegedly organised the data entry work. Several data-entry operators were also involved. On October 17, searches were conducted at properties linked to former four-time MLA Subhash Guttedar, who lost the 2023 election from Aland, and his associates. Police seized seven laptops and several mobile phones during the raids.
Investigators also discovered that 75 mobile numbers — belonging to people from varied backgrounds, including a poultry-farm worker and relatives of policemen — were used to file the deletion requests. These numbers were reportedly registered on the Election Commission’s portal under fake credentials. Authorities are now investigating how the credentials were accessed and whether insiders facilitated the large-scale voter manipulation.
The issue of mass voter deletions in Aland had been flagged earlier by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who called it an example of “vote chori” or vote theft. Guttedar, however, has denied any role in the scam, dismissing the allegations as politically motivated and accusing his rival, Congress MLA B R Patil, of using the controversy to gain political mileage.
The SIT is continuing its probe to trace the source of the funds used for the deletions and to determine whether political actors were directly involved. Officials say the findings could have serious implications for the integrity of electoral processes in Karnataka and may prompt wider scrutiny of voter list management systems across the state.
