Special court grants anticipatory bail to Subhash Guttedar, son in ‘voter theft’ case

A special court in Bengaluru on Friday granted anticipatory bail to former BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar and his son Harsha Guttedar in connection with the alleged ‘voter theft’ case of Aland Assembly Constituency in Kalaburagi district being probed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Criminal Investigation Department.

In the event of their arrest by the SIT, they should be released on bail on they executing a personal bond for ₹1 lakh each with one surety for the like sum, subject to the conditions that they should appear before the investigating officer within 10 days from today and co-operate for the investigation, said Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, Judge of the special court of session for criminal cases against present and former MPs and MLAs, in his operative portion of the order.

Also, the court directed them not threaten or tamper the prosecution witnesses, not leave the country without obtaining written permission from the court, to furnish their residential proof and address to the investigating officer, and not to threaten or tamper with the prosecution witnesses.

The former MLA and his son had knocked the doors of the court after the SIT had raided their premises in Kalaburagi district and had seized CCTV recording system. Also, the SIT, before the court, claimed that the probe was under way against them while claiming that forensic analysis of seized digital data indicate attempt to burn certain papers, likely voter list.

The allegation in the complaint that 5,994 names of the voters in the constituency were illegally deleted prior to 2023 elections using forged forms for deletion of voters.