Karnataka govt forms SIT to probe Aland voter deletion case

The SIT will be headed by BK Singh, ADGP, CID. He will be assisted by Saidulu Adavath, SP, CID Cybercrime Division, and Shubhanwita, SP, CID.

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Saturday formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Aland voter deletion case.

In an order, the Congress government appointed BK Singh, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), to lead the SIT.

Singh will be assisted by Saidulu Adavath, Superintendent of Police (SP), Cybercrime Division, CID, and Shubhanwita, SP, Special Inquiry Division, CID.

The order noted that the case registered in Aland Police Station in Kalaburgi on February 21, 2023, will be probed by the SIT along with any other fresh cases registered henceforth. So far, the CID was probing the case.

The SIT was further granted the status of a police station and directed to submit the final reports to the necessary courts. The SIT will work under the supervision of MA Saleem, Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) and Director General of Police (DGP), CID (Special Units and Economic Offences).

The case gained steam after Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi earlier in the week accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of refusing to share required information to investigate the case and nab the culprits.

Gandhi had alleged that CID had written to the election commission 18 times seeking technical details but received no response.

Congress leader BR Patil won in 2023 from Aland against BJP's Subhash Guttedar by 10,348 votes.

The order appointing the SIT noted that attempts were made to delete 6,018 voters from the electoral rolls in Aland but only 24 voters were deleted. The remaining 5,994 votes weren't deleted as the applications were found incorrect.