Bengaluru: Seven persons, including a former BJP MLA and his son, have been named in a chargesheet in the vote theft case during 2023 Assembly elections in Karnataka.
The chargesheet, of over 20,000 pages, was submitted before the First Additional Chief Metropolitan in Bengaluru by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing charges of alleged efforts to remove names of 5,994 voters in the Aland Assembly constituency.
Subhash Guttedar, a former four-time MLA from Aland, his son Harshanand Guttedar, personal secretary Tipperudra, three operators of a data centre in Kalaburagi — Akram Pasha, Mukaram Pasha and Mohammed Ashfaq — and Bapi Adya have been named in the chargesheet.
Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had, in September, accused the BJP and Election Commission of India of massive deletion of voters in Aland constituency. The poll panel had dismissed Rahul’s allegations, saying that voter’s name can’t be deleted online without giving that person an opportunity to be heard.
The first person to be arrested in the case was Adya, a youth from West Bengal, who allegedly provided an OTP bypass facility to access the Election Commission’s online services. He was arrested but released on bail.
The ex-MLA, his son and personal secretary were granted pre-arrest bail.
Guttedar’s son denied the charges, saying that he and his father have been framed in a false case.
Following the filing of chargesheet, Karnataka Deputy CM D K Shivakumar said, “It is the fact. Nothing is hidden here. MLAs want to discuss this on Wednesday in the assembly. We will have a legal vote bank as Rahul suggested.”
Priyank Kharge, another Karnataka minister, sought an answer from the BJP.
“When we filed a complaint, they were brushing it. But now the investigation itself is speaking about it. BJP should answer now on why their candidates are involved in such fraudulent acts,” he said.
Union minister and BJP leader Pralhad Joshi said anyone can file an FIR, but the court will eventually decide.
