All info with ECI already shared with Kalaburagi SP: K'taka CEO on Rahul Gandhi's allegations

Bengaluru, Sep 18 (PTI) The office of the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Thursday said all available information with the Election Commission of India (ECI), regarding alleged attempts to delete 6,018 votes in the state's Aland constituency in the run up to 2023 assembly polls, has already been shared with Superintendent of Police, Kalaburagi.

Clarifying that the FIR in connection with the case was lodged by the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO), who function under the authority of ECI, it also said, CEO, Karnataka has been providing all assistance or information or documents to the investigating agency.

The CEO's statement is seen as a response to Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi's attack against the Election Commission, urging it to stop protecting "vote chors" and provide within a week information sought by the Karnataka CID, in an investigation into voter deletions.

"Based on the instructions given by ECI, the CEO, Karnataka has handed over to Superintendent of Police, Kalaburagi district on 06.09.2023 all the available information with ECI for completing the investigation," a note from the CEO office said.

It said, "The shared information includes Objector's details, including Form Reference Number, name of the Objector, his EPIC number and mobile number used for log-in and mobile number provided by the Objector for processing, software application medium, IP address, applicant place, Form submission date and time, and user creation date." The note further said, after providing the requested information, meetings were also conducted by the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka with the Investigating Officer and Cyber Security experts of the Police to review the progress of the investigation.

"CEO, Karnataka has already been providing any other assistance/information/documents to the investigating agency," it added.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting "vote chors" and people who have destroyed democracy, and cited data from the Aland Assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.

In Aland, someone tried to delete 6,018 votes and got caught by coincidence, he said, alleging that names of voters of the Congress were being deleted systematically.

Noting that there is an ongoing investigation in Karnataka, Gandhi said the CID has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the Election Commission and has asked for some very simple facts such as the destination IP from where these applications were filled and OTP trails. They are not giving it because it will lead us to where this operation is being conducted, he claimed.

Sharing the details, the CEO office said, the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) Aland received 6,018 applications in Form 7 which were submitted online using various apps such as NVSP, VHA, GARUDA apps during December 2022.

It said, suspecting the genuineness of such a large number of applications submitted online for deletion of electors' names in Aland constituency, verification of each application was conducted by ERO, AERO (Assistant Electoral Registration Officer), and BLOS (Booth Level Officers).

Only 24 applications were found to be genuine and another 5,994 were found to be incorrect, and accordingly, 24 applications were accepted and 5,994 incorrect applications were rejected and not deleted. "Based on the inquiry findings by BLOS, ERO- Aland lodged an FIR with the Inspector of Police, Aland Police Station, Kalaburagi district (FIR No.26/2023 Alanda Police Station dated 21.02.2023)," it said. PTI KSU KH