Karnataka forms SIT to probe alleged attempts to delete over 6,000 voters in Aland Assembly seat

The Congress government in Karnataka on Saturday formed a Special Investigation Team of the state police’s Criminal Investigation Department to investigate alleged illegal attempts to delete the names of 6,018 voters from the electoral rolls in the Aland Assembly seat in Kalaburagi in 2022-’23.

This came two days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that a centralised software programme was being used to systematically delete names from voter lists in the state. He alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was protecting those committing “vote theft”.

In February 2023, a case was filed regarding the alleged deletion of voters from the electoral rolls in Aland.

In its order on Saturday, the state home department said that it had decided to “constitute a Special Investigation Team of the CID comprising in the case registered at the Aland Police Station, Kalaburagi District in connection with the unauthorised exclusion of voters from the electoral roll…”

The team would be led by Indian Police Service officer BK Singh, who is in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department’s Economic Offences and Special Investigation units.

The Special Investigation Team had also been mandated to look into cases that may be registered in other police stations in the state in connection with the criminal case filed at the Aland Police Station, according to the...

Read more