Attempts Made to Manipulate Voters Lists in Other Seats Beyond Aland, Karnataka SIT Findings Suggest

New Delhi: The Karnataka government’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the alleged voter theft in Aland constituency has found that attempts were allegedly made to manipulate voters lists in at least two other seats in Kalaburagi district.

The SIT’s investigation has revealed that a data centre used to illegally make online applications for deletion of names might have been used for manipulation of voters lists in the other constituencies. It has also been revealed that primarily BJP leaders in Kalaburagi region had approached the data centre for its services, reported Indian Express, citing sources.

The newspaper reported that “an agreement was signed for changes to voter lists on behalf of a candidate from another constituency in the Kalaburagi region with the data centre”.

“In one constituency (of Gulbarga city) as many as 35,000 voter names (primarily minorities) were manipulated,” said an official.

According to the sources, important evidence required to prosecute the case in Aland has been found in the SIT’s investigation, but the investigators at present do not have a mandate to investigate alleged vote manipulation in other Kalaburagi seats.

Earlier, the SIT had claimed to have established the use of around five computer sets to fill online fraudulent forms. Four alleged suspects, identified as Akram, Ashfaque, Nadeem, and Mushtaq, have reportedly set up computers to file 6,018 fraudulent ‘Form 7 applications’ on the Election Commission website for deletion of names.

The SIT is reported to have also unearthed a “call centre-like” setup where Rs. 80 was paid to make each of those over 6,000 fraudulent applications.

The SIT had also searched properties linked to Subhash Guttedar, the BJP leader who lost from Aland in the 2023 Assembly polls, along with his sons Harshanand and Santosh Guttedar, and a chartered accountant, Mallikarjun Mahantagol.

The alleged Aland vote theft scam is one among the few constituencies that Congress’s Member of Parliament and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi cited in his press conference a month ago. The allegations of vote theft in Aland constituency were first raised in 2023.

Last month, the SIT accused the Election Commission of not cooperating with them in the investigation and allegedly not providing them with the vital digital evidence to follow the theft trail.

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