In a significant breakthrough in the Aland voter deletion investigation, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Karnataka CID has made its first arrest - a 27-year-old man from West Bengal accused of facilitating illegal OTP bypass services for electoral fraud.
The Arrest and Key Accused
Bapi Adya, who previously operated a mobile repair shop in his hometown, was apprehended on Wednesday night from the Ghuguragachhi-Hanskhali region of Nadia district in West Bengal. The accused was subsequently produced before a local court in Bengaluru on Thursday.
This development marks the first arrest in the ongoing probe into irregular applications for deletion of names from the voter list of Karnataka's Aland Assembly constituency ahead of the 2023 state elections. The investigation gained national attention after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi highlighted the Aland constituency during a September 18 press conference where he alleged widespread electoral fraud and "vote chori" (vote theft).
How the OTP Bypass Operation Worked
According to the SIT's remand application seeking 14 days custody of Adya, the investigation revealed a sophisticated operation where the accused provided "OTP bypass" services specifically for voter deletion activities. The money trail showed that Rs 700 was credited to Adya's bank account for every successful OTP bypass provided to access the Election Commission of India's online services.
The payments were routed through a website called OTPbazaar from the account of a data centre operator in Kalaburagi. Technical evidence presented to the court indicated that "the trail of the debits from the bank account of the data centre operator by the OTPbazaar website was going to an IndusInd Bank account belonging to Bapi Adya through a BharatPe payment gateway."
Scale of the Voter Deletion Fraud
The investigation uncovered that OTPs from the ECI were delivered to 75 phone numbers registered with the Election Commission's online services for placing deletion requests for voter names in Aland during 2022-23. Police sources revealed that these 75 numbers spanned across 17 different states and predominantly belonged to individuals unaware that their phone numbers were being misused to access ECI services.
In a shocking revelation, sources indicated that over 3,000 fake numbers were used in deletion applications targeting 5,994 voters from Aland constituency. The SIT investigation found that "the OTPs from the ECI were being received almost instantaneously by the illegal vote deletion operators in Kalaburagi without the knowledge of the actual users of the phone numbers used to register with the ECI."
Investigation Progress and Future Steps
Following technical analysis of mobile phone data that located Adya in Nadia district, an SIT team was dispatched to arrest him. The court has granted the SIT 12 days of police custody for Adya, during which investigators hope to uncover the technical methodology behind the OTP bypass mechanism for ECI online services.
The SIT has seized two laptops and a mobile phone from the accused. Meanwhile, Adya's father, Probir Adya, claimed limited knowledge of his son's activities, stating that they primarily live in UP and visit Bengal only for a few months annually, adding that his son "usually moves around all the time and is not at one location."
Electoral Reforms Following the Scandal
In response to Rahul Gandhi's allegations about illegal vote deletions in Aland, the Election Commission of India has implemented significant security enhancements. The ECI has now introduced an Aadhaar-enabled OTP authentication system to access its online services for voter deletions, additions, and modifications, aiming to prevent similar fraudulent activities in the future.
The case continues to develop as the SIT pursues further leads in what appears to be a sophisticated network involved in electoral manipulation through technological loopholes in the election system.
