First arrest made in Karnataka vote chori; OTPbazaar website used

BENGALURU: First arrest made in vote chori. The SIT has arrested Bengal native Bapi Adya in the vote chori case in Karnataka. The arrest is in the case of massive vote deletion in the Aland constituency.

The investigation revealed that, for every “OTP bypass”, Rs 700 was credited to Bapi Adya's bank account from the account of a data centre operator in Kalaburagi. A special website named OTPbazaar was used for this purpose. The data centre and records of transactions made were recovered. The contract for the vote deletion is suspected to be linked to BJP leader Subhash Guttedar. SIT raided the former BJP MLA's and his sons in connection with the case.

Lok Sabha Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi had raised the allegation of vote chori in a press conference on September 18. He said that a large number of voters' names were deleted ahead of the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections and last year's general elections. However, the BJP and the Election Commission had dismissed these allegations as baseless.