SIT conducts raids at homes and businesses of BJP leader’s children in Aland 'vote chori' case

Kalaburagi: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Aland ‘vote chori’ case conducted searches at the houses and business establishments belonging to the children of BJP leader and former MLA Subhas Guttedar here on Friday.

The case, which received national attention, pertains to alleged efforts to delete over 6,000 names from the Aland voters’ list ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls.

Guttedar had unsuccessfully contested against senior Congress leader B R Patil.

The SIT team led by SP Shubhanvita has been camping in Kalaburagi for the last three days and conducting search operations at multiple locations.

Sources said several documents, purportedly related to the voters’ list, were burnt in front of Guttedar’s house when the SIT visited Aland on Friday.

Local Congress leader R K Patil alleged that BJP leaders had dumped some documents, including those related to the voters’ list, in the nearby Shakapur lake before the SIT arrived in Aland.

In light of this allegation, police officials inspected the areas around the lake as well.

The SIT team searched the houses of Guttedar’s sons Harshanand Guttedar, a former zilla panchayat vice-president, and Santosh Guttedar at Gubbi Colony and Vasant Nagar, respectively, here.

The sleuths also searched the house of a chartered accountant Mallikarjun Mahatagol at Khuba Plot in Vivekanand Nagar. 

A complaint had been lodged with the Chief Electoral Officer in February 2023 in connection with the anonymous applications to delete around 6,000 names from the voters’ list in the constituency.

Aland MLA B R Patil had complained that fake Form-7s were used to delete the names of his supporters from the voters’ list. A case had been registered in this regard at the Aland police station on the direction of the then election officer.

Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had recently held a press conference in Delhi and raised the issue, following which the state government formed the SIT.