Bengaluru: A special court for elected representatives in Bengaluru on Friday granted anticipatory bail to former BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar, his son Harsha Guttedar, and aide Tipperudra, in connection with an alleged attempt to illegally delete voters’ names in the Aland constituency of Karnataka’s Kalaburagi district.

The trio had approached the court fearing arrest after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka CID carried out searches earlier this month at multiple properties linked to the Guttedar family and their associates.

Bail conditions set by special court

While allowing the bail plea, the special court directed the former MLA, his son, and their aide to appear before the Investigating Officer within 10 days and cooperate with the probe. The court also instructed them not to tamper with evidence, not to threaten witnesses, and not to leave the country without permission.

“The bail application filed by the petitioners under Section 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, is hereby allowed,” the order stated. “In the event of arrest, the petitioners shall be released on bail on executing a personal bond of ₹1,00,000 each with one surety for a like sum.”

The court observed that the offences cited in the case were bailable in nature and questioned the two-year delay in the investigation since the case was registered in 2023. The order followed the submission of a sealed case diary by the CID, detailing the progress of the probe.

Allegations and evidence cited

During Thursday’s hearing, state prosecutor C. K. Ranjith opposed the bail plea, citing CCTV footage of alleged destruction of voter lists and the seizure of a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) containing relevant footage from Guttedar’s residence.

The prosecution alleged that the SIT had found evidence of burning voter lists outside Guttedar’s Aland home when searches were underway at his Kalaburagi residence in October. “A mirror image of the DVR retrieved under due process has revealed the burning of materials,” the prosecutor told the court.

The Aland voter deletion case

The case dates back to February 2023, when election officials in Aland found that 6,018 names were proposed for deletion from the voter list across 254 booths. Upon verification, only 24 voters were found to have relocated, while 5,994 names belonged to residents still living in the constituency.

An assistant commissioner and returning officer for Aland subsequently filed a police complaint on February 21, 2023, against unknown persons under IPC sections related to impersonation, forgery, and providing false information.

The FIR stated that multiple mobile phones were allegedly used to file online voter deletion applications without the consent or knowledge of the voters.

SIT investigation and searches

The Karnataka government formed an SIT on September 26, 2025, to revive the probe that had made little headway since 2023. Investigators traced the operation to a data centre in Kalaburagi, run by Mohammed Ashfaq and Md Akram, which allegedly facilitated deletions for a fee of ₹80 per voter.

Subsequent searches on properties linked to the data centre and Guttedar’s associates led to the seizure of laptops allegedly used during the December 2022–February 2023 voter list revision exercise.

Former MLA denies involvement

Responding to the allegations, Subhash Guttedar — a four-time MLA and BJP’s candidate in the 2018 and 2023 Assembly elections — denied any role in the alleged voter manipulation.

“The SIT raided my house in Kalaburagi and Aland but found nothing. They claim we burnt documents, but every home does cleaning for Deepavali. It was just trash that was burnt,” Guttedar said.

He dismissed the accusations as politically motivated, linking them to his 2023 rival Congress leader B. R. Patil, who defeated him by 10,348 votes, reversing the 2018 result where Guttedar had won by a slim margin of 697 votes.

Political backdrop and continuing probe

The alleged voter deletion incident gained national attention in September 2023, when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of failing to act on irregularities in Aland’s electoral rolls ahead of the state elections.

The SIT’s investigation is ongoing, with forensic analysis of seized digital evidence expected to play a key role in determining culpability. The special court’s order emphasised that while anticipatory bail has been granted, the accused must cooperate fully with investigators.

As of Friday, the CID has not announced any arrests, and further hearings are expected after the submission of the forensic report.