![[File] Rahul Gandhi addressing a press conference on the alleged 'vote theft' in Karnataka | PTI](https://img.theweek.in/content/dam/week/week/news/india/images/2025/9/18/rahul-gandhi-vote-chori-press-conference.jpg.image.340.191.jpg "[File] Rahul Gandhi addressing a press conference on the alleged 'vote theft' in Karnataka | PTI")
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged “vote theft” in Aland constituency in the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections has filed a chargesheet against seven people, including a former BJP MLA and his son.
The case relates to alleged attempts to delete as many as 5,994 names from the voters’ list ahead of the elections.
The chargesheet, filed before the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Bengaluru, comprises over 22,000 pages explaining in detail the modus operandi of the accused, reports said.
Subhash Guttedar, a four-time former MLA from Aland, his son Harshanand Guttedar, his personal secretary, Tipperudra, three Kalaburagi-based data centre operators—Akram Pasha, Mukaram Pasha and Mohammed Ashfaq—and Bapi Adya from West Bengal are the seven people named in the chargesheet.
Guttedar, his son and Tipperudra have been granted anticipatory bail by a special court. Adya, the first person to be arrested in the case, is also out on bail.
According to reports, Adya allegedly operated a website, OTPbazaar, which was linked to a US-based platform to provide an ‘OTP bypass’ facility.
Bengaluru, Karnataka: On the SIT filing a chargesheet in the Aland vote bank theft case, Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar says, "It is a fact; there is nothing hidden there. They have conducted a serious investigation. We are taking up the matter. Our MLAs also want to raise this issue… pic.twitter.com/VXXVJDufWM
— IANS (@ians_india) December 13, 2025
The Karnataka government formed an SIT after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that a significant number of voters were removed in the Aland segment during the 2023 elections and that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was protecting the “vote chors”.
Aland MLA B.R. Patil had also lodged a police complaint stating that 6,670 voters across 256 polling stations were unlawfully removed from the electoral rolls.
The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has denied Gandhi's 'vote chori' charges and said it has been cooperating with the police investigation.
Responding to the Congress's charges of alleged attempts to delete over 6,000 voters from the electoral roll in the constituency, the poll body said names of only 24 voters were deleted, that too, after carrying out necessary verifications.
