Aland voter fraud case: SIT makes first arrest

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the voter fraud in Aland Assembly constituency made the first arrest in the case on Wednesday.

A man running two portals that provided phone numbers and OTPs to the Kalaburagi-based private firm to open untraceable accounts on Election Commission (EC) portals through which forged Form 7s to delete genuine voters of Aland were made in 2023, has been arrested.

Bapi Adya was picked up from a village in Nadia district on the Indo-Bangladeshi border in West Bengal on Wednesday night. He was produced before the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Court in Bengaluru on Thursday and remanded in 12 days police custody.

Bapi Adya allegedly runs two portals that provide phone numbers and OTPs sent to these numbers to do transactions online, for ₹10 per such credential.

These portals, sources said, seem to have a tie-up with a similar portal in the United States of America and their servers are also suspected to be based abroad. The police recovered multiple digital devices from the arrested prson.

The OTP mystery 

In the Aland case, 5,994 of the 6,018 Form 7 applications (to delete voter names from the list) were found to be forged in February, 2023, during an onground verification following a complaint by Congress candidate B. R. Patil.

These applications were made in the names of voters of Aland to delete other names from the list, with neither of them being aware. The Hindu reported on the case on September 7, 2025.

These forged Form 7s were made through 72 accounts created on EC platforms — Voter Helpline App (VHA), National Voters’ Services Portal (NVSP), and Garuda app, details of which were shared with the investigators by the EC. However, further requests of specific technical data haven’t received a response till date.

These 72 accounts were created using 72 mobile numbers, spread across 18 States. While records show these numbers were sent OTPs from the EC portal while creating the login ID and passwords, none of the 72 who used these mobile numbers was aware of this. How the private firm that submitted the forged Form 7s zeroed in on these 72 phone numbers and how they accessed OTPs without the owners knowing it is still a mystery.

The SIT has till date questioned six persons associated with the Kalaburagi-based private firm, which got a contract to make forged Form 7s. The SIT also raided former BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar and his sons in connection with the case. They have secured anticipatory bail.

One of the key persons running the firm, who was in Dubai and returned recently, was questioned by the SIT. He helped solve the OTP mystery.

Portals that sell OTPs 

The co-owner of the firm reportedly pointed to investigators two portals that provided them with the 72 mobile numbers and OTPs to open accounts on the EC portals.

After registering on these portals for a charge, the client will have to select a service like WhatsApp or Telegram and “order” for a credential.

The portal generates a mobile number, which needs to be copied and pasted in the service selected, to get an OTP sent to that particular number. Bapi Adya was identified and tracked down through the money trail the Kalaburagi-based firm paid.

While this was the front end of how these portals worked, what technology they used to access OTPs sent to these random phone numbers it generated, is yet to be cracked.

Web portals that sell credentials and OTPs without the owners of these SIM cards being involved, have raised red flags for its potential in cybercrimes. These portals will now likely be probed for transactions beyond the Aland case.

Authentication process

However, the portals work only in case of single authentication and not for transactions that have double authentication. EC portals had only single authentication when the voter fraud happened in 2023 and now have double authentication.