'Vote theft' case: Burnt voter records found near Ex-BJP MLA Guttedar’s house in Aland

Heaps of burnt voter records were found near former BJP MLA Subhash Guttedars residence in the district on Saturday as the SIT intensified its probe into alleged vote theft in the Aland assembly segment during the 2023 assembly elections.Guttedar said there was nothing suspicious about the burnt voter records, blaming his housekeeping staff.As part of the cleanliness drive ahead of the festival, our staff threw it outside and burnt it.

Heaps of burnt voter records were found near former BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar's residence in the district on Saturday as the SIT intensified its probe into alleged 'vote theft' in the Aland assembly segment during the 2023 assembly elections.

Guttedar said there was nothing suspicious about the burnt voter records, blaming his housekeeping staff.

"As part of the cleanliness drive ahead of the festival, our staff threw it outside and burnt it. If we had some malicious intention, then we would have preferred burning it away from our house. Why would anyone do it in front of the house? There were no ulterior motives behind it," he told reporters here today.

The SIT had on Friday raided several locations linked to Guttedar, his sons, and a chartered accountant, sources said.

The SIT was formed after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged large-scale 'vote theft'. To support his claim, he cited the Aland constituency during the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections.

The Congress has alleged that fraudulent phone calls were made on behalf of some genuine voters to delete ''Congress voters'' from the rolls.

Congress leaders claimed that the timely detection of the fraud led to the victory of their candidate B R Patil, and the defeat of the BJP candidate, Subhash Guttedar.

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