Karnataka SIT unearths call centre-like setup to delete voter names in Aland
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Mangaluru: A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has claimed to have discovered in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi district five computers set up to fill online fraudulent forms on the Election Commission website for deletion of names, The Wire reported.
The investigation team, probing the alleged voter theft in Aland constituency, unearthed what the report said “call centre-like” setup to make over 6,000 fraudulent applications paying Rs 80 for each.
The team has pinned down on four alleged suspects, identified as Akram, Ashfaque, Nadeem, and Mushtaq, in connection with the incident.
They allegedly set up computers to fill out 6,018 fraudulent ‘Form 7 applications’ on the Election Commission website for deletion of names.
It is reported citing The Indian Express that the SIT is looking forward to zero in on those behind the four suspects.
The SIT has earlier raided premises linked to BJP MLA Subash Guttedar who defeated the Congress candidate B.R. Patil by a margin of 698 votes in the 2018 elections but had previously lost to Patil by 10,347 votes in 2023.
The SIT has neither disclosed the reasons behind the raid nor accused Guttedar of any role in the reported scam.
The alleged Aland vote theft scam is among those the Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi cited in his press meet a few weeks ago.
Alongside, the allegations of vote theft in Aland constituency were first raised in 2023.
The SIT alleged last month that the Election Commission was not cooperating with the probe alongside not providing them with the vital digital evidence.
It is revealed that the perpetrators reportedly used 75 mobile phone numbers of people from vulnerable sections in the country to create login IDs for the 6,018 applications.
The SIT, according to the report, is focusing on the loopholes used for creating login IDs with single one-time passwords (OTPs).
Alongside questioning Akram, Nadeem, and Mushtaq, the SIT is now planning to bring back Ashfaque from Dubai.