K'taka SIT files charge sheet in Aland voter fraud case; names 7, including BJP ex-MLA

Bengaluru, Dec 13 The Special Investigation Team has filed a charge sheet before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court in Bengaluru in connection with the alleged voter fraud in the Aland Assembly constituency in Karnataka, sources confirmed on Saturday.

The development has acquired political significance as the Congress has scheduled a protest at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on Sunday, over alleged voter fraud. The filing of the charge sheet comes just a day ahead of the proposed protest.

According to the police, the charge sheet runs into 22,000 pages and names seven accused, including former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Subhash Guttedar and his son Harshanand. The SIT alleged that a call centre was set up and deleted 5,994 votes from the electoral rolls in the Aland constituency.

The charge sheet further claims that the former MLA had made payments to facilitate the alleged manipulation of voter data. Investigators said that the offence has been established through digital evidence recovered during raids conducted as part of the probe. The father and son have been described as the prime accused in the case.

The SIT was constituted under the leadership of senior IPS officer B.K. Singh, following allegations of vote theft raised by Congress MLA B.R. Patil.

Guttedar and his son Harshanand had earlier obtained bail in the case.

Reacting to the filing of the charge sheet, Harshanand on Saturday alleged that the case was politically motivated. He claimed that since there is a Congress-led government in the state, officials were being misused to include his and his father’s names in the charge sheet.

He further alleged that although the accusations were made ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections, B.R. Patil went on to win as a Congress candidate, and there was no progress in the case for nearly two years. “No documents were found during this period, and the case remained dormant,” he claimed.

Harshanand also alleged that the case was revived only after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raised the issue. He claimed that Patil used the matter to get closer to the party leadership and secure a ministerial position.

“We have no information about the contents of the charge sheet. We will examine it through our lawyers. Since people across the country have rejected the Congress party, they are running this vote-theft campaign against the BJP. Ahead of the so-called vote-theft rally in Delhi, the authorities have hurriedly filed the charge sheet by misusing officials,” he alleged.

Harshanand also said that a notice was issued to them earlier this week, and their statements were recorded by the investigators.

“We have explained our role. No laptop was recovered from our house. Let them prove our role in court,” he said, challenging the allegations.

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