Karnataka Minister Patil seeks EC probe into 'vote chori' allegations in Aland
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Minister M B Patil on Friday said the Election Commission of India should take responsibility and order an inquiry into the alleged "vote chori" (vote theft) after a SIT found that attempts were made to delete over 6,000 votes en masse in the Aland Assembly segment ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections.
Patil, who holds the industries and infrastructure portfolio, said everything that Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had been saying all along has now come true.
"Now the truth has come out. This is what Rahul Gandhi has been saying all along—how the BJP came to power, its sins and illegalities. The Election Commission of India had been demanding proof. Now we have it," Patil told reporters here.
Citing reports, he said Rs 75 to Rs 80 was paid per deleted voter name in the Aland Assembly constituency in the state.
"We are talking only about Aland. This can be done across India. The EC should take responsibility and inquire into it. The BJP should answer now," he said.
The minister accused the BJP and the EC of dismissing earlier warnings. "Rahul is the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. He is like a shadow PM. You were asking him to file an affidavit instead of investigating. Now it is proved. Let us see what the EC and the BJP have to say on this," Patil added.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged voter data manipulation in Aland found that attempts were made to delete thousands of names from the rolls and identified at least six suspects involved.
Sources in the Criminal Investigation Department said the suspects were paid Rs 80 for every successfully deleted name. Requests were made to remove 6,994 names, most of which were found to be bogus.
Aland, located in Kalaburagi district—home turf of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge—is represented by senior Congress MLA B R Patil.
Recently, Rahul Gandhi cited the Aland case at a press conference in New Delhi while alleging large-scale voter data manipulation across the country.
BR Patil has said he would have lost the election had the names been deleted. He won the 2023 Assembly polls from Aland by a margin of about 10,000 votes against the BJP's Subhash Guttedar.
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NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
