Bengaluru: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged “vote chori” (vote theft) in Karnataka’s Aland Assembly segment during the 2023 elections has identified at least six suspects who charged ₹80 for every deleted vote.
According to top sources in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), nearly 6,994 votes were targeted for deletion, most of which were bogus requests, barring a few genuine cases. The suspects allegedly operated through a data centre and used voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) to process deletions.
Aland, part of Kalaburagi district in North Karnataka, is the home district of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, and the constituency is represented by senior Congress MLA B. R. Patil. The alleged scam was exposed by Patil and Kharge’s son, Priyank Kharge, who serves as a minister and Chittapur MLA. They alerted the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) after uncovering attempts to remove votes belonging mainly to Dalits and minorities, which were described as “Congress votes.”
Following their complaint, the CEO ordered a status quo, halting the deletions. “Had those votes been deleted, I would have surely lost the election,” said Patil, who won the 2023 Assembly election by around 10,000 votes against BJP’s Subhash Guttedar.
Taking the matter seriously, the Karnataka government formed a Special Investigation Team led by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) B. K. Singh within the CID to probe the “vote theft.”
“Attempts were indeed made in Aland to delete votes,” a senior CID officer told PTI. “We questioned about 30 people, and five to six have emerged as strong suspects who can be arrested soon.” While the possibility of similar attempts in other constituencies cannot be ruled out, officials confirmed the current focus remains on Aland.
Based on intelligence inputs, the SIT conducted raids at premises linked to the suspects, including those of Subhash Guttedar, his sons Harshananda and Santosh Guttedar, and their Chartered Accountant. During searches, investigators also discovered burnt voter records near Guttedar’s residence.
Responding to this, Guttedar claimed the documents were burned as part of Diwali housekeeping, denying any wrongdoing. “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 told reporters.
Reacting to the revelations, Minister Priyank Kharge posted on X:
“Voters deleted for just ₹80 in Aland. The latest findings from the Karnataka SIT confirm what we’ve been saying all along — over 6,000 genuine voters were struck off the rolls through a paid operation ahead of the 2023 elections in Aland.”
He alleged that a full-fledged data centre in Kalaburagi was involved in systematically deleting voter names and “tampering with our democratic process.”
“All investigations now point to foul play by BJP leaders and their associates. Every dirty trick from the BJP’s #VoteChori playbook will be exposed piece by piece, and every single person responsible will be held accountable,” Kharge added.
Aland MLA B. R. Patil said he has not been briefed on the SIT’s progress and will await the final report of the investigation.
With PTI inputs