Karnataka: BJP leader Subhas Guttedar, his son named as prime accused in Aland 'vote chori' case

Kalaburagi: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has filed a chargesheet against a total of 7 people including former BJP MLA Subhas Guttedar and his son Harshanand in the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) court in Bengaluru on Friday in connection with the Aland Voter Fraud case in Kalaburagi district.

In the 22,000-page chargesheet, SIT has named both BJP leader and his son as accused A-1 and A-2 respectively for attempting to delete the names of 5,994 voters from the Aland voters’ list before the 2023 Assembly polls. The four-time MLA Guttedar had defeated B R Patil by a slender margin of 697 votes in 2018. Later, Patil wrested the seat back in 2023 polls by 9,348 votes.

Guttedar, the then sitting MLA has hatched the criminal conspiracy with other accused persons for his personal and political gain. He has identified a possible list of voters who did not vote for him and provided to other accused to delete their names by submitting form-7 through the National Voter Service Portal (NVSP) of Election Commission, without the consent and notice of the original voters, the chargesheet stated.

The others accused named in the charge-sheet are the BJP leader’s personal assistant Tipperudra (A-3), Akram Pasha (A-4), his brother Aslam Pasha (A-5), their relative Mohammad Ashpak Ahmad, who are resident of Kalaburagi and Bapi Adya who originally hailed from West Bengal.

The government had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the leadership of CID ADGP B K Singh to conduct the probe into the case. The team had conducted raids at houses and business establishments belonging to the BJP leader and his children in Aland apart from undertaking search operations at residences of their loyalists in Kalaburagi in October.

Both father and son are also charged with the act of burning and destroying evidence under sections 90 120(29), 182, 409, 419, 464, 465, 468, 471, 201, 204 2 34 2 68C, 84C of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Akram Pasha and Mohammad Ashpak Ahmad have hatched a conspiracy to illegally obtain the mobile number and OTP required to create a login ID. Bapi Adya has found a system of providing OTP through https://otpbazar.online which he is operating in exchange for money. They have planned a criminal conspiracy to create a login ID on the NVSP portal by illegally using the mobile number and OTP, which are factors that help in identifying voters online, the charge sheet explained.

The accused have been charged with providing false information to a public servant, forgery, impersonation and destruction of evidence under various sections of Indian Penal Code. Guttedar and his son have secured anticipatory bail, while Bapi Adya has been arrested in the case. All others have been already questioned by SIT.

Guttedar rebuts charges

Rebutting the charges of his involvement in an attempt to delete voters’ names, Subhas Guttedar has accused MLA B R Patil of hatching a conspiracy to prevent him or his son from contesting the next assembly election from Aland. “The charges levelled against me are totally false and this is concocted by B R Patil. SIT has named us as prime accused in the charge sheet after coming under pressure from the state government. We do not know about the other five persons named in the chargesheet. We will fight against it legally”, he said.