Bengaluru, Sep 20 (NationPress) In response to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s declaration regarding the allegations of ‘Vote Chori’ in the Aland Assembly constituency, as raised by Rahul Gandhi, the government of Karnataka has ordered the establishment of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to scrutinize these claims. This SIT will be under the leadership of senior IPS officer B.K. Singh.

The team led by B.K. Singh previously achieved a conviction against former JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, who is the grandson of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, in a notorious sex CD and rape case.

Currently serving as the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Administration within the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), B.K. Singh also oversees the Economic Offences Wing at the CID. The SIT tasked with investigating the Vote Chori allegations will also comprise SP Sydulu Adavat from the Cyber Crime Department (CCD) and SP Shubhanvita from the Special Inquiry Division (SED) of the CID.

Equipped with the authority to act as a police station, the SIT has been mandated to investigate not just the Aland case, but also other related criminal cases that have already been filed, as well as any future cases that may arise in various police stations statewide. All such cases will be transferred to the SIT.

Functioning under the oversight of the CID Chief, the SIT is required to conduct its investigation swiftly and submit its findings to the appropriate court, while also sending a copy to the government through the DGP and IGP.

The case registered at the Aland police station in Kalaburagi district in 2023 under IPC Sections 182, 419, 464, and 465 will now fall under the purview of the SIT.

Aland Congress MLA B.R. Patil has raised concerns that in his constituency, the names of 6,670 voters were inexplicably removed from the rolls across 256 polling booths. Upon investigation by the Election Commission, it was revealed that requests to remove these names were submitted via government websites. Of these requests, the EC confirmed that 24 were processed and names were deleted.

However, KAS officer Mamatha Kumari reported to the Aland police that upon reviewing the remaining 5,994 applications, it appeared that individuals with ulterior motives had submitted requests without the actual voters’ consent, using various mobile numbers. Consequently, the government has initiated the formation of the SIT to delve deeper into this issue, as stated in the order.

The Karnataka government has confirmed that the 'Vote Chori' allegations related to the Aland Assembly constituency, brought to light by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, will be thoroughly investigated by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah addressed this matter during a press interaction in Gadag city on Saturday, asserting, “Rahul Gandhi has highlighted that approximately 6,000 names of voters were removed from the Aland constituency, which is indeed accurate. An SIT probe will be conducted into the alleged voter fraud in Aland.”

Critiquing the Election Commission of India's (ECI) responses and dismissals of the accusations made by Rahul Gandhi, Minister for RDPR, IT, and BT Priyank Kharge and Aland MLA B.R. Patil jointly declared the ECI’s claims as completely false in a press conference.

Minister Priyank Kharge stated to reporters in Bengaluru on Friday, “Following Rahul Gandhi’s press conference, the Election Commission is now acting as if they were the ones who uncovered and halted voter fraud. They are asserting that they themselves stopped the deletion of voters from the electoral rolls. This is a complete lie.”

Congratulating Rahul Gandhi for bringing the Aland voter fraud issue to national attention, Congress MLA B.R. Patil expressed gratitude towards Priyank Kharge for his support.