SIT probing the 2023 Aland “vote theft” case has identified six suspects tied to a data centre accused of tampering with voter lists.
Around 6,994 fraudulent deletion requests — mostly targeting Dalit and minority voters — were halted after Congress raised alarm.
SIT raids linked to BJP leader Subhash Guttedar’s residence uncovered burned voter registers, which he claimed were “Diwali waste.”
At least six suspects have been identified by the Special Investigation Team looking into the "vote chori" (vote theft) cases in the Aland assembly sector of the Karnataka assembly elections of 2023. They have found that "attempts" were made to erase votes.
Top sources in the Criminal Investigation Department indicate that the accused received Rs 80 for each vote that was successfully erased. Except for a few legitimate requests, all of the 6,994 vote deletion requests were fraudulent.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's home district is Kalaburagi in North Karnataka, where Aland is located. Senior Congress MLA B R Patil serves in the assembly seat.
Priyank Kharge, a minister and Chittapur MLA and the son of Patil and Kharge, discovered the attempts to delete the votes and informed the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer.
6,994 'Congress votes' that included Dalits and minorities were to be deleted, according to Patil. After the CEO ordered the status quo, the deletion was halted.
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, recently described the "vote chori" in a news conference in New Delhi, citing the Aland case.
According to Patil, he would have undoubtedly lost the election if these votes had been eliminated. He defeated his closest opponent, Subhash Guttedar (BJP), by roughly 10,000 votes in the 2023 assembly election.
Taking a serious note of it, the Karnataka government formed the SIT to probe "vote theft", which is headed by the Additional Director General of Police B K Singh in the CID.
"Attempts were indeed made in Aland to delete votes. We questioned about 30 people, and of them, five to six are strong suspects. They can be arrested," a top official in the CID told PTI on Thursday.
The officer stated, "We are just focusing on Aland because the complaint was regarding that constituency," without discounting the potential of similar attempts being made elsewhere. The six suspects were linked to a data centre and had created voice over internet protocol to remove votes, according to CID sources.
The SIT searched the location connected to the suspects based on the information provided. Additionally, they invaded the homes of Subhash Guttedar, his sons Santosh and Harshananda, as well as their chartered accountant.
The SIT also found the burned voter registers close to Subhash Guttedar's residence in the meantime.
Guttedar informed reporters that his housekeeping crew had burned all of the "waste materials" in preparation for Diwali.
"There was no malafide intention behind burning these documents. If we had ulterior motives, we would have done it somewhere away from our house," the BJP leader said.
Speaking to PTI, Aland MLA Patil said he is unaware of the headway made by the SIT. He said he would wait for the outcome of the investigation.
With PTI inputs.
