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A case has been registered by the Whitefield police over allegations of large-scale voter list manipulation in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The FIR was filed on November 19 following a complaint by 39-year-old Y Vinoda, a resident of Nallurhalli in Whitefield and president of the Congress’ Marathahalli block. She alleged that a significant number of fake names had been added to the constituency’s electoral rolls, information she said was already in the public domain.
In her complaint, Vinoda expressed concern that the integrity of the election process had been compromised. She claimed that a substantial number of fraudulent entries were added to the voter list in Mahadevapura during the 2024 polls and stated that such an exercise could not have taken place without the involvement of government officials, individuals linked to the political party that benefited, and other private parties.
She urged the police to investigate the matter thoroughly and identify those responsible. The FIR has been registered against unknown persons, including an unnamed political party, officials and private individuals.
The Whitefield police have booked the case under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 129 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi had also flagged the issue in a press conference in August. Rahul alleged that there were 1,00,250 fake voters in the Mahadevapura assembly constituency, citing issues such as duplications and large numbers of voters registered at a single address. At the time, he had asked the Congress-led Karnataka government to probe the matter further.
Following the allegations, the Karnataka government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by ADGP BK Singh and arrested a man from West Bengal. The SIT, tasked with probing the submission of nearly 6,000 forged Form 7 applications aimed at removing names from electoral rolls, arrested Bapi Adya for providing "OTP bypass" services to a Kalaburagi-based data firm.
Acting on the complaint, the police have registered the case under Section 129 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, alongside various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Indian Penal Code.