By M B Girish

Copyright deccanchronicle

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday revealed the officials of Election Commission denied, sleuths of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) investigating allegations of deletion of voters names without their knowledge in Aland Assembly seat, technical details such as destination IPs, device ports, OTP trails which are essential to identify where the alleged deletion of voters names was run from and who were behind it.In a statement, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah demanded the Election Commission to immediately hand over all technical details-IP logs, device ports and OPT trails-to CID sleuths within a week and failing to do so, will expose Election Commission as complicit in shielding those who are trying to destroy democracy. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recalled that between February 2022 and February, 2023, as many as 6018 Form 7 applications were filed through Election Commission apps to delete names from the voters list of Aland Assembly constituency of Kalaburagi district. On inquiry, only 24 were genuine while 5,994 were fraudulent. The delete voters’ names, Chief Minister said, fake logins and mobile numbers from outside Karnataka were used to impersonate “applicants” and the entire families were targeted for deletion from voters list without their knowledge. Based on it, a case was registered and sleuths of CID took up its investigation. The Chief Minister said, CIS sleuths made repeated appeals to the Election Commission for 18 months to share technical details but the Election Commission refused to share the data sought by CID sleuths and he questioned “Why has crucial digital evidence been withheld, despite 18 reminders (to Election Commission)?” “Was Aland only the tip of the iceberg?” said the Chief Minister and stated in 2018, Bharatiya Janata Party nominee won Aland seat narrowly. In 2023, nearly 6,000 voter name deletions were attempted and again in 2024, BJP led this segment (in Lok Sabha election). The Chief Minister wanted to know “How many such manipulations have gone undetected in other constituencies” and “How many results were influenced?” Siddaramaiah assured to continue its fight against vote theft until accountability is fixed and democracy is safeguarded.