Aland voter fraud: Chargesheet names former BJP MLA and his son as prime accused

Former BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar and his son Harshananda Guttedar have been named as the prime accused in the chargesheet filed by the Karnataka police special investigation team (SIT) that is probing voter fraud in the Aland Assembly constituency ahead of the 2023 Assembly election in the State.

The BJP was in power in Karnataka at the time of the alleged crime, and Mr. Guttedar was seeking re-election from Aland.

Five others have also been accused in the chargesheet, and one person has been arrested, but the Guttedars have secured anticipatory bail.

SIT awaiting ECI data

On September 7, 2025, The Hindu had reported that the probe into the case had hit a roadblock, as the Election Commission of India (ECI) was not sharing key technical data with investigators. Following this, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi held a press conference in Delhi and the State government formed a SIT to probe the matter, led by Additional Director General of Police B.K. Singh.

Sources in the SIT said this was only the first chargesheet and more will follow, as and when the ECI provides the required data. The SIT is likely to approach the court, seeking directions to the ECI for the same. 

Criminal conspiracy 

Mr. Guttedar, a four-time MLA from Aland, was contesting against B.R. Patil of the Congress, then a three-time MLA from the constituency. Mr. Guttedar had won the seat in 2018 by a narrow margin of 697 votes. 

The Guttedars hired Akram Pasha, who ran a call centre-like firm in Kalaburagi, to target and delete the names of voters whom they suspected would vote for Mr. Guttedar’s opponent, the chargesheet said, adding that they had marked such voters on the electoral rolls. When the SIT raided multiple premises linked to the Guttedars, they had burnt and destroyed evidence in Aland, the SIT alleged in the chargesheet. 

Mr. Pasha was paid ₹80 for every forged Form 7 application his firm made to delete a voter from the list without their knowledge, the chargesheet alleged. The voluminous 22,000-plus pages of the chargesheet include several technical pieces of evidence, including the money trail between the Guttedars and Mr. Pasha’s firm, sources said. 

Modus operandi 

Mr. Pasha, along with his brother Aslam Pasha and relative Mohammed Ashfaq, created accounts on the National Voters’ Services Portal (NVSP) using fake credentials. They had bought these from a website, https://otpbazar.online, which was run by West Bengal-based Bapi Adya, who was paid from the account of Mr. Akram Pasha’s wife.

Mr. Ashfaq not only used the laptop and mobile phone provided to him by the Pasha brothers for the purpose, but also his mobile phone and internet connection. These devices have been recovered and are part of the evidence, sources said.

Using these fraudulently created login IDs, the trio made 5,994 forged Form 7 applications between December 12, 2022, and February 16, 2023. These applications were made in the names of other random voters of the Aland assembly constituency. Neither the person in whose name the application was made, nor those whose names were sought to be deleted were aware of the action. 

Caught and charged

Mr. Patil, the Congress candidate from Aland who eventually won the election, and now represents the constituency in the Assembly for the fourth time, was tipped off to the forged Form 7s when a booth-level officer (BLO) found a Form 7 submitted to delete her own brother’s name from the list, which he had no knowledge of. This man was a follower of Mr. Patil and lodged a complaint with the ECI in February 2023.

Verification on the ground then revealed that, of the 6,018 Form 7s received in Aland, only 24 were genuine, while 5,994 were forged. The Returning Officer filed a complaint, based on which an FIR was registered, and later transferred to the SIT. 

The seven accused in the case have now been charged with criminal conspiracy, providing false information to a public servant, forgery, impersonation, and destruction of evidence under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, and for identity theft under the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The Guttedars have secured anticipatory bail, while Mr. Adya has been arrested. The rest of the accused have been questioned, but not arrested.