Following fresh allegations by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi regarding irregularities in the Aland Assembly segment ahead of the 2023 Karnataka elections, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the state Thursday issued a statement maintaining that all available information was already shared with the superintendent of police of Kalaburagi on September 6, 2023.
In a release, the CEO said that 6,018 applications in Form-7 were submitted in December 2022 via NVSP, VHA, and GARUDA apps, seeking the deletion of voter names. “Suspecting the genuineness of such a large number of applications submitted online for deletion of electors’ names… verification of each application was conducted,” the statement said.
According to the CEO, only 24 applications for deletion were found to be genuine, and 5,994 were found to be incorrect. “Accordingly, 24 applications were accepted and 5,994 incorrect applications were rejected and not deleted,” the CEO said, adding that booth level officers filed a First Information Report (FIR) in connection with the incident on February 21, 2023.
Based on the instructions by the Election Commission of India, the Karnataka CEO handed over “all available information with ECI for completing the investigation”. “The shared information includes the objector’s details, including Form Reference Number, name of the Objector, his EPIC number and mobile number used for log-in and mobile number provided by the Objector for processing, software application medium, IP address, applicant place, Form submission date and time, and user creation date.”
The statement further noted that meetings were held by the Karnataka CEO with the investigating officer and cybersecurity experts to review the progress of the investigation. “CEO, Karnataka has already been providing any other assistance/information/documents to the investigating agency,” it said.
In a news conference held in New Delhi, Rahul Gandhi alleged there was an attempt to wrongly delete over 6,000 names from the electoral rolls in the Aland constituency in 2023, which was caught, and an FIR was lodged as well.
He also said that though the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is currently investigating the case, repeatedly asked ECI for the destination IP addresses and One Time Password trails related to the online applications, the poll body had not provided the information, thereby curtailing the probe.