On Monday, the Bengaluru city police and the Election Commission last night raided a place in Chikpet area and allegedly found handheld printers and voter slips relating to Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency were found.

As soon as the news of the raid became public, the BJP accused Congress of indulging in fake voter ID racket. Taking to Twitter, the BJP alleged that the Karnataka Congress lawmaker Rizwan Arshad, who is also the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha candidate for Congress, of being involved in it.

Youth Congress National Secretary Ibrahim Khaleelulla was operating from Prabhat Complex 3rd floor Roon No 507. They were caught red handed by BJP corporate & Karyakarthas. It’s speculated @INCIndia is printing fake voter cards in other parts of the country too. — BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) April 15, 2019

The BJP alleged that as many as 18 people who were involved in printing the fake voter ID were arrested. The BJP has alleged that Youth Congress National Secretary Ibrahim Khaleelulla was running the racket from room no. 507 of 3rd floor of Prabhat Complex in Chikpet area. The BJP also sought that based on this, the Congress should be disqualified from contesting the elections and Arshad be banned from contesting elections till the investigation is complete.

Meanwhile, Rizwan Arshad has denied all the charges and said that ‘sensing defeat’ the BJP has ‘launched an extraordinary attack’ on him as they don’t want an ordinary boy to succeed. The BBMP Commissioner M Manjunath Prasad has said that while prima facie there is no foul play involved, further investigation is currently on in this regard.