BJP Leaders Booked For Using Form 7 To Cut Muslim Votes in Karnataka

This development comes amid the Election Commission of India and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) facing serious allegations colluding in targeting voters of the minority communities and deleting their names

Belagavi: Multiple FIRs have been registered against BJP leaders over their alleged involvement in illegally using Election Commission's Form 7 to target and delete Muslim Voters from the electoral rolls in Karnataka.

This development comes amid the Election Commission of India and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) facing serious allegations colluding in targeting voters of the minority communities and deleting their names.

FIR in Belagavi

An FIR has been registered against Karnataka BJP leader Ravi Patil and others for allegedly attempting to get the names of 198 voters belonging to the minority community deleted from the electoral roll in Belagavi district using Form-7 applications during the ongoing SIR process, police said on Friday.

The case was registered at Belagavi Market police station on September 30 following a complaint by Meerasab Sanadi, who was working as a Booth Level Agent in Ward No 12 of the Belagavi North Assembly constituency, they said.

According to the FIR, the complainant alleged that while recently assisting the BLO in the SIR of electoral rolls being undertaken by the Election Commission and helping in the verification of voter information, on September 22, at around 2.30 PM, the accused persons Patil, Shankar Beerappa Naik and Pashant Deepak Mundinmani, along with 20-25 others, allegedly came together with a malicious intention and conspired to target only voters belonging to the Muslim community.

They allegedly conspired to delete the names of 198 voters from the electoral roll, created fake documents and submitted them to the BLO, falsely claiming that the documents were genuine and had been issued by the ERO, the complainant alleged.

In the complaint, he alleged that the Form-7 applications brought by the accused with fake documents also contained the names of him and his family members.

Form-7 is a voter application form for objection for the proposed inclusion/deletion of name in the existing electoral roll.

"They allegedly exerted pressure on the BLO and made another person speak over the phone claiming to be the ERO and obtained his signature, thereby cheating the complainant and the voters," the FIR said.

The complainant also claimed that it was found that they intended to create a situation in which, if the names of the 198 Muslim community voters were deleted from the electoral roll, the affected persons might become agitated and engage in violence, thereby disturbing peace and public order.

The FIR has been registered under Sections 318(4) (cheating), 336(3) (forgery), 336(4) (forgery specifically intended to harm reputation), 353 (statements conducing to public mischief), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), 3(5) (common intention), 192 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 190 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, police said, adding that further investigation is underway.

FIR in Bidar

In another such case reported in Bidar, 40-year-old businessman and voter from Bhalki, Mohammed Ateeq Ahmed, alleged in his complaint that 3,244 voters, including him, were falsely shown as "shifted/absent" through Form-7 applications during the SIR of electoral rolls.

According to the FIR, he alleged that the applications were submitted without obtaining authenticated documents from the affected voters and that signatures were forged, with the intention of getting their names removed from the electoral roll.

Following his complaint, an FIR was registered on October 1, naming 32 accused persons in connection with the alleged irregularities.

Vote Chori In Mysuru

In Mysuru, a complaint was lodged by Syed Hasarath Ulla, a social worker, who alleged that Form-7 applications were submitted during the SIR process claiming that he and his family members were not residing at their registered address, despite having lived there for several years.

He alleged that false information was entered in the forms and submitted to the ECI with the intention of getting his and his family members' names deleted from the electoral roll.

The complainant further alleged that similar Form-7 applications containing false information were submitted against 28 other voters.

Following the complaint, a case was registered at Narasimharaja police station against Harish Kumar C, Raghavendra M and Anil Thomas (BJP Minority President), along with others, alleging that they had conspired to get his, his family's and other members of the Muslim community's votes deleted during the SIR process and thereby hurt the religious sentiments of the community and create disturbance in society.

Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, along with his Cabinet colleagues and MLAs, staged a sit-in outside Chief Electoral Officer V Anbukkumar's office on Thursday, demanding an FIR over alleged electoral fraud, dubbed as 'Vote Chori' during the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls.