Vote fraud row: SIT raids on former MLA’s home amid Aland voter fraud allegations

Former Karnataka BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar denied voter fraud allegations, calling the SIT raid on his residence a distraction from key issues. The SIT recovered burnt electoral documents, voter ID cards, and continues to probe the Aland constituency matter

Kalaburagi (Karnataka): Former Karnataka BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar on Saturday termed the Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) raid on his residence as an attempt to divert public attention from key issues. The SIT is probing the alleged voter fraud in the Aland assembly constituency of Kalaburagi district.

“The allegations of voter fraud against me are completely false. This is being done to distract people from other issues. No voter names were deleted around my house,” Guttedar told reporters in Kalaburagi.

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Referring to reports that burnt voter lists were found near his residence, he said, “In view of the Diwali festival, workers had cleaned our house. They know nothing about voter lists or elections. If someone wanted to destroy such lists, they would not have done it near my residence.”

Aiming Aland Congress MLA B.R. Patil, Guttedar alleged that the voter fraud charges were fabricated. “They have brought people from their native places, taken them to Delhi, made them stand with Rahul Gandhi, and got them to issue statements. B R Patil is trying to get closer to Rahul Gandhi to secure a ministerial post,” he alleged.

Guttedar added that he had not received any official notice yet but would cooperate with the investigation if required. “There is no development activity happening in the State because the treasury is empty. In this backdrop, the Congress government is creating controversies,” he claimed.

The SIT, probing the alleged voter fraud following complaints raised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, conducted overnight raids in Aland town and recovered documents, voter ID cards, and burnt electoral rolls reportedly dumped in the Amarja River.

The SIT team, stationed in Kalaburagi for the past five days, earlier raided a call centre and several houses, seizing seven laptops and around 1,000 voter identity cards. On Friday night, it raided Guttedar’s residence, as well as Apna Bar — allegedly linked to him — and the home of a chartered accountant.

Investigators also allegedly found piles of burnt and partially burnt election-related documents near Guttedar’s residence. Preliminary findings suggest that the material was loaded onto a goods truck and dumped into the Amarja River.

The SIT, led by SP Shubhanvita along with local police, has launched an operation to retrieve the dumped documents and is probing whether the call centre was used to manipulate voter lists. An official statement from the SIT is yet to be issued.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi had alleged that attempts were made to delete over 6,000 votes in Aland during the 2023 Assembly elections. He claimed that the matter came to light when a booth-level officer noticed her uncle’s name had been deleted and traced the irregularity to a manipulated voter list.

However, the Election Commission of India (ECI) dismissed Gandhi’s allegations, clarifying that online vote deletion by individuals is not possible and terming the claims of mass voter deletion “incorrect and baseless.”

The Congress-led Karnataka government has ordered an SIT probe into the matter. Congress MLA B R Patil currently represents the Aland seat, while Subhash Guttedar, who lost the 2023 election, had earlier held the seat as a BJP MLA. IANS