KL Report
SRINAGAR
A day after Court directed police to probe ‘bogus voting’ in Khanyar Assembly segment, police Friday started a through probe to establish the facts and said that if proved, a formal FIR will be lodged in this regard.
Pertinently, Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar, after acting on a complaint filed by PDP losing candidate Muhammad Khurshid Alam, Thursday had directed police to investigate into alleged bogus voting in Khanyar constituency during the recently held assembly elections.
The Court directed the police to initiate investigation into the matter and register an FIR if cognizable case is established. The court has sought the investigation report by or before February 14.
Alam, a PDP candidate from Khanyar, who lost recent assembly election to NC candidate Ali Muhammad Sagar, has submitted a petition before the CJM, praying that bogus voters were used to cast their votes during the recently held polls.
“I had several times, via written pleas, asked the concerned authorities including the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Srinagar to delete the wrong entries in the voting list,” states the compliant.
While taking note of the complaint, the CJM directed SHO Khanyar to investigate the matter and register a case against all those involved in the issue, including the electoral officer, if allegations are found substantial.
The complainant submits that in Khanyar 825 voters are either non-existent or have appeared in the list at more than one place. “Around 300 voters are registered in the revised voter list at more than one place, interestingly at separate polling stations,” states the complaint.
The complainant submits that there are at least 1200 fake entries in the revised voter list of Khanyar constituency, adding that a resident of a particular locality also exists on another voter list of a different locality falling under the jurisdiction of another polling station.
“Among the fake entries, there is sizable number of women voters who are allegedly being traditionally used as mobile voters in the city for many years now,” states the complaint.
“Each bogus voter is carrying more than one photo identity card issued by the electoral officers and hundreds of voters were registered in more than one voter list,” the complainant submits.
The complaint underlines that a woman registered in one voter list also exists in another list with same name and photo identity and the number of such double entries in the electoral roll of Khanyar constituency runs in hundreds.
“There are around 800 such voters who could not be traced in Khanyar constituency. These are actually non-existent voters. According to some people, this was being allegedly done by some people in the government for certain considerations,” the complainant alleges.
Station House Officer (Khanyar) Nisar Ahmed said that police has started the probe. He said that police will comply with the directions of the court and will hold a thorough inquiry into these allegations. “We will submit our report by or before February 14 and if the allegations will prove, a formal FIR will be registered,” he said adding that the moment police received the Court orders, it started probe into the matter.
