‘Karnataka SIT fails to arrest Guttedars, conducts please-all probe in Vote Chori scam’

Bengaluru 

On September 18, 2025, a press conference addressed by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on the alleged theft of votes in the Aland Assembly constituency triggered widespread political furore and raised expectations of imminent arrests.

Party workers were energised when the Congress government in Karnataka constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) B K Singh, to probe the allegations.

However, developments that followed have caused deep disquiet within sections of the Congress.

A senior party leader alleged that Gandhi may not have imagined that the SIT would file what was described as a “please-all” interim or supplementary chargesheet. According to the leader, the most serious lapse was that the SIT deliberately allowed former BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar and his son Harshananda Guttedar to evade arrest.

The SIT had already inherited substantial material after the investigation into the alleged mass deletion of votes was transferred from the cyber wing of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). One of the first actions SIT must have carried out – the Congress leader said – was to issue notices to the Guttedars under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and arrest them. Instead, the Guttedars secured anticipatory bail on October 31, exactly 41 days after the SIT was constituted. The inaction by the investigating team for more than a month into its formation is highly conspicuous. 

In the interim chargesheet, seven accused were named. However, the SIT arrested only one person, identified as Bapi Adya. He is currently out on bail. None of the other accused, including Subhash Guttedar and Harshananda Guttedar, were arrested. The Congress leader, who did not wish to be named, said the probe appeared to be an “eye-wash” designed to please all sides.

According to the leader,  political bosses guiding the SIT appeared to be attempting to satisfy Rahul Gandhi on one hand, while on the other, it was alleged to have compromised the probe to accommodate political adjustments involving Gutteadars and some top Congress leaders. The leader further alleged that there was no necessity to file an interim chargesheet when the investigation was still in progress.

“As the probe is still underway, the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court is unlikely to take cognisance of the 22,000-page chargesheet,” the leader said. He also raised questions about when the SIT would file an additional chargesheet, noting that the Election Commission of India (ECI) may not share the required technical data. If the ECI fails to provide the data to the SIT, he stressed, the investigation could remain inconclusive indefinitely.

A report published by The Hindu on September 7 (online edition) stated that the SIT’s probe into alleged voter fraud had hit a roadblock as the ECI was yet to share the necessary data. Sources in the police department told blrpost.com that the CID had written to the ECI 18 times but had received no response.

Within some ranks in the party, there is a growing view that the SIT has conveniently cited the ECI’s non-cooperation as a reason for its failure to arrest the Guttedars. The SIT can bypass the ECI to secure required data. While the investigation may appear, at first glance, to have been conducted diligently, party insiders say many are not convinced by this narrative. They argue that there is a clear understanding of the tactics employed to allow the Guttedars, named as prime accused in the chargesheet, to avoid arrest.

Besides die hard fans of Rahul Gandhi and some leaders like Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and IT Minister Priyank Kharge, others seem to be uninterested in bringing this case to the logical end. This is evident from the probe that was conducted. A Kannada proverb – Hāvu sāyabāradu, kōlu muriyabāradu (The snake should not die, and the stick should not break.) aptly suits the manner in which the probe was conducted. 

The handling of the investigation, the leader said, has not only demoralised party workers but has also caused significant embarrassment to Rahul Gandhi and All India Congress Committee President Mallikarjuna Kharge.

What is the scam

The Guttedars allegedly orchestrated a systematic effort to unlawfully remove voters they believed would support a rival candidate.. To execute the plan, they engaged Akram Pasha, who operated a call centre-style setup in Kalaburagi, tasking him with engineering deletions from the electoral rolls.

The chargesheet states that suspected opposition voters were first identified and flagged on official voter lists. When the SIT carried out searches at locations linked to the Guttedars, investigators claimed that key evidence had already been deliberately destroyed, including materials burnt at premises in Aland.

Akram Pasha was allegedly paid ₹80 for each fraudulent Form 7 submitted to strike a voter’s name off the rolls without the individual’s consent or awareness.

How the operation worked

Akram Pasha, his brother Aslam Pasha, and a relative, Mohammed Ashfaq, created multiple user accounts on the National Voters’ Services Portal (NVSP) using fabricated credentials. These credentials were procured from an online platform, otpbazar.online, allegedly operated by West Bengal resident Bapi Adya. Payments for these services were made from the bank account of Akram Pasha’s wife.

Ashfaq is accused of carrying out the online submissions using laptops and mobile phones supplied by the Pasha brothers, as well as his own personal devices and internet connection. Investigators have recovered these devices and listed them as material evidence. 

Using the fake NVSP logins, the three allegedly submitted 5,994 forged Form 7 applications between December 12, 2022, and February 16, 2023. The applications were filed in the names of unrelated voters from the Aland Assembly constituency. Neither the individuals whose identities were used nor the voters whose names were targeted for deletion were aware of the applications.

Detection

The alleged fraud came to light after a booth-level officer (BLO) discovered a Form 7 seeking deletion of her brother’s name from the electoral roll—an application he had never authorised. The matter was brought to the notice of the Election Commission of India in February 2023 through a complaint linked to the Congress candidate from Aland, B R Patil, who later won the election and is now serving his fourth term as MLA.

Subsequent field verification revealed that of the 6,018 Form 7 applications received in the constituency, only 24 were legitimate, while the remaining 5,994 were forged. Based on the findings, the Returning Officer lodged a formal complaint, leading to the registration of an FIR, which was later handed over to the SIT.