A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka Police formed to probe the Aland ‘vote chori’ case has claimed in its charge sheet that former BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar provided a list of voters who previously did not vote for him to a data centre for deletion ahead of the 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls.
The SIT of the Karnataka CID filed its charge sheet Friday in a magistrate’s court in Bengaluru, naming Subhash Guttedar, 74, a four-time MLA from Aland in Kalaburagi, his son Harshananda, personal aide Tipperudra, data centre operator Akram Pasha, his relative Aslam Pasha, associate Md Ashfaq, and Bengal youth Bapi Adya, who allegedly provided an ‘OTP bypass’ to access online services of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
A total of 5,994 names were sought to be illegally deleted by the operators of the Kalaburagi data centre, the SIT has alleged. Notably, Subhash Guttedar had won the 2018 poll by a narrow margin of 697 votes.
The SIT said in its charge sheet, “A conspiracy was hatched for the political gain of A-1 (Subhash Guttedar) in the Aland assembly constituency. The conspiracy was to identify the names of potential voters who did not vote for A-1 (Accused no. 1) among the names of voters listed in the voter list and remove them from the voter list for political gain.”
“The voters’ list identified in this way was provided to A-4 (Akram Pasha) and A-5 (Aslam Pasha) by A-3 (the MLA’s aide). The said voters’ list was provided to A-6 (Ashfaq) by A-4 and A-5,” the charge sheet further stated. The data centre operators were allegedly paid on behalf of the ex-MLA for carrying out the deletion services at the rate of Rs 80 per deletion request.
“As per the conspiracy A-4, A-5, A-6, by using the mobile number and OTP illegally purchased from A-7 (Bapi Adya), a login ID was created on the NVSP portal of the Election Commission, and a total of 5,994 applications were submitted by A-6 through an organized group of A-4, A-5, A-6 using documents with false information in electronic format to remove names from the voter list, thereby attempting to deprive the voters of their rights, and it is prima facie confirmed that A-1 played a major role in the act of fraud,” the SIT stated.
The former BJP MLA, his son and aide also attempted to destroy election-related documents in their possession when the SIT was carrying out searches in October this year regarding the illegal vote deletion conspiracy, the SIT further said.
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The SIT has indicated in the chargesheet that investigations would continue in the case, and further chargesheets would be filed based on the findings.
‘No involvement’
Subhash Guttedar has denied involvement in the alleged illegal vote deletion attempt.
“If there were illegal vote deletions, how was the Congress candidate B R Patil elected?” Subhash Guttedar remarked.
“This case has been created against us. The case was registered in 2023, but did not see any progress. After Rahul Gandhi raised the issue ahead of the Bihar elections, this case was given prominence. This is a conspiracy by the Congress candidate B R Patil,” the former MLA’s son, Harshananda Guttedar, said Saturday.
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The chargesheet has been filed under sections of the Indian Penal Code for impersonation, criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust, which entail imprisonment of 10 years or life imprisonment, making the case triable by a sessions court.
A special court for elected representatives in Bengaluru had earlier granted anticipatory bail on October 31 to Subhash Guttedar, Harshananda Guttedar, and Tipperudra.