Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting “vote-chors.”

Presenting The Aland Files, a set of data from the constituency of Aland in Karnataka, Rahul said, “The chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is protecting those who are destroying the Constitution, murdering democracy in India.”

This was the second news conference where Rahul targeted the central poll panel over alleged manipulation in electoral rolls.

In February 2023, an FIR was filed and the Karnataka state CID has since sent 18 letters in 18 months to the central poll panel but is yet to receive any replies.

“I am telling Gyanesh Kumar you have taken an oath. CID (of Karnataka) is asking for proof, submit it within a week’s time,” Rahul demanded. “The Karnataka CID asked the Election Commission to provide destination IP from where the forms were filled, the device destination port and the OTP trails. But they are not giving it. Because this will lead us to the people who are doing it. The chief election commissioner is protecting people who are doing this, the vote-chors. This is absolute, solid proof. I am making such direct accusation against Gyanesh Kumar.”

The pattern that Rahul, speaking like a fictional sleuth explaining the crime at the climax, has detected is phone numbers used to delete the names of the voters were from outside the state of Karnataka. The names of the voters that were used to delete voters was that of the first name in the booth.

“Whose numbers are these? How and from where did they operate? Who generated the OTPs?” asked Rahul.

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“This is not an individual’s handiwork. This was not done at the booth workers level. This was done at a call centre. This was done by using a software which picked the first voters in a booth and filed applications for deletion of voters. This was done in a centralized manner.”

“Whoever are involved in this have large resources. Who is this someone? The answer is with the EC. When they do not give information they murder democracy,” said Rahul.

“When we wrap this up there will be no room for doubt that Lok Sabha seats were won by deceit. My duty is to tell the truth to the youth, the people of this country. I am protecting the Constitution. It is the responsibility of India’s institutions. But they are not doing it,” he said.

According to Rahul, the matter came to light when a BLO in Aland observed that the name of one of her family members was deleted.

“She traced the deletion was carried out by a neighbour. When she confronted the neighbour, he denied. A probe was started. It has come to our notice that 6,018 voters were deleted in Aland. The number could be more,” said Rahul.

On dais with Rahul was one such applicant, Suryakant, who is alleged to have filed 12 forms for deletion of voters in 14 minutes. Also present was a voter Babita Choudhari whose name was deleted allegedly by Suryakant.

Speaking in Kannada, Suryakant denied his involvement in the deletion of voters. An elderly woman whose name was similarly used too denied having filed any such forms. Another applicant whose name on screen appeared as Nagraj had filed two applications within a span of 36 seconds.

“On December 19 2022, this man woke up at 4.07 am and filed two applications to delete the names of voters within 36 seconds. Please try and fill the forms, see how long it takes,” he said.

On August 7, Rahul had presented a similar set of data to establish “beyond reasonable doubt” names of voters were added to the electoral rolls in Karnataka ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, and the same voters were included in multiple booths in Karnataka as well as Maharashtra. A former MLC in Maharashtra who had unsuccessfully contested the state Assembly polls from Panvel had filed a case with the Bombay High Court months before the elections were announced cautioning about multiple voters in his constituency.

In contrast to Aland is Maharashtra’s Rajura, where names of 6,850 voters were added.

“In Aland there has been targeted deletion of voters in strong Congress booths. In other places voters are being added. This has happened in Maharashtra, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh,” Rahul said.