Congress Calls SIT Chargesheet in Aland Voter Deletion Case First Victory
The SIT filed chargesheet before the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court in Bengaluru in connection with the alleged voter deletion ahead of the 2023 Assembly election
Kalaburagi: The Congress on Friday termed the filing of a chargesheet by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the alleged illegal voter deletion case in Aland as a “first victory” in its ‘Vote Chori’ campaign, while BJP leader and former MLA Subhash Guttedar dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
The SIT filed a 22,000-page chargesheet before the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court in Bengaluru in connection with the alleged deletion of thousands of names from the electoral rolls ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections.
Those named in the chargesheet include former Aland MLA and BJP leader Subhash Guttedar, his son Harshanand Guttedar, his personal secretary Tipperudra, and three individuals linked to a data centre — Mukaram Pasha, Mohammed Ashfaq and Akram Pasha. A youth from West Bengal, Bapi Adya, has also been named, sources said.
“This marks our first victory,” senior Congress leader and Aland MLA B.R. Patil told Deccan Chronicle. Patil has been leading the campaign, repeatedly raising allegations of large-scale irregularities in voter deletions in Aland. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had addressed a press conference on the issue in New Delhi in September, which Patil also attended.
“Our allegations have been substantiated by the SIT investigation. The BJP has been exposed. This is only the beginning,” Patil said, adding that the next phase would be a legal battle in court.
Rejecting the allegations, Guttedar said the case was politically motivated. “B.R. Patil wants to silence me and prevent me from contesting elections. These allegations were made to project proximity to the Chief Minister and later to align with Rahul Gandhi,” he alleged, adding that raising the issue more than two years after the election revealed the political intent behind it.
Guttedar said he would challenge the charges legally and expressed confidence that he would be vindicated. “Deletion of voters follows a statutory process and cannot be done arbitrarily. The ‘vote chori’ allegations are completely baseless,” he said.
The case stems from complaints that, ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls, large-scale forgery was detected in Form-7 applications, even though voters had not sought deletion of their names. Patil, along with Minister Priyank Kharge and MLC Ramesh, brought the matter to the Election Commission’s notice.
According to the Congress, attempts were made to delete the names of 5,994 voters in the Aland constituency. Following a complaint by the returning officer, the matter was initially probed by the district police before being transferred to the CID. The party has alleged that during the CID probe, the Election Commission ignored 18 requests for information, prompting the state government to constitute an SIT.
The SIT, formed on September 20, is headed by CID Director General of Police B.K. Singh, with IPS officers Saidulu Adavat and Shubhanvita as members. It has been vested with police station powers across Karnataka under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
