Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday announced a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe alleged attempts to delete over 6,000 votes from the electoral roll for the Aland Assembly constituency during 2023 Karnataka elections. This is the second probe ordered by the Karnataka government over Rahul Gandhi's 'vote chori' charges.
Additional Director General of Police - CID, will head the probe and will be assisted by two Superintendent of Police rank officers - Saidulu Adavath and Shubhanwita. The SIT was formed after Aland MLA B.R. Patil lodged a police complaint stating that 6,670 voters across 256 polling stations were unlawfully removed from the electoral rolls.
According to authorities, the SIT has been vested with police station powers under Section 2(U) of the Bharatiya Nagarika Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and tasked with investigating all related cases across Karnataka, PTI reported. The SIT will submit its report to the competent courts and also forward it to the state government.
Recently, during a press conference in Delhi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, alleged attempts were made to delete names of over 6,000 voters from the electoral roll for Aland constituency in the run-up to the election. According to Gandhi, though the Karnataka police launched a probe, the Election Commission has been refusing to share details with the probe team. Gandhi charged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was protecting the vote chors.
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However, the Election Commission denied the allegations and said though it received 6,018 applications enmasse for deletion of votes, after due checks, only 24 names were removed from the list; the remaining 5,994 applications were rejected.
The Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, denied Gandhi's allegations and said it had registered an FIR with Kalburgi police in 2023 itself and had shared all available details with investigators.