Overview
- The SIT arrested six people from Kalaburagi, including Mohammed Ashfaq and Mohammed Akram, alleging they operated the data centre that drove the fraudulent submissions.
- Officials say operators were paid Rs 80 per submission for roughly 6,018 bogus requests, amounting to around Rs 4.8 lakh.
- Ground verification found only 24 names eligible for removal, indicating most requests targeted genuine voters in Aland ahead of the 2023 election.
- On October 17, officers seized more than seven laptops and several phones in searches at premises linked to former BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar, who denies involvement.
- Digital leads include VoIP communications and 75 mobile numbers used to access the EC portal, and investigators are now tracing funding sources and seeking server-side logs from the Election Commission.