Delhi hit by massive poll scam: Election commission unearths 13 lakh bogus voters and over 80,000 valid voter cards for dead people



The office of the Delhi Chief Election Commissioner has uncovered a massive electoral scam involving the use of forged documents to obtain voter identity cards for suspected Bangladesh nationals, 13 lakh bogus voters and inflated voter numbers per family in about 20,000 households.



Huge irregularities have been unearthed in the old electoral rolls of the city, resulting in the deleting of the names of about 13 lakh bogus voters from the old list over the last few months.



Surprisingly, during a revision exercise, officials found over 80,000 valid voter cards for dead people. The election office is now engaged in a summary revision. The Delhi Election Commission has deleted 13 lakh names as they were "bogus" voters.



A number of complaints about fake voters registered by various political parties have been received in the run-up to the Delhi Assembly polls

"They are basically ineligible. Many of them are dead, many have shifted from their original place, and many are those who are already listed. There are instances in which people get new voter cards after shifting from one place to another but they don't get their names deleted from the former place," added the officer.



Dev said the revision of electoral rolls is still on and a final list will be published on September 2.



"So far there are a total 1.12 crore voters in the city after the deleting of ineligible names. We hope that about 2-3 lakh more voters will be added to the list," he added.



In the latest case, officials found that forged Aadhar cards were used by a group of people suspected to be Bangladeshi immigrants. Suspecting this could be just part of a large-scale racket aimed at getting people unauthorised citizenship, an FIR has been registered and an investigation initiated.

The Delhi Election Commission has also started cracking down on officials suspected of involvement in various offences, including criminal offences. About 80 officials have already been penalised for various reasons, including for accepting bribes while on election duty.



The scams do not end here. Delhi state chief election officer (CEO) Vijay Dev told Mail Today: "Over 22,000 households with more than 20 members (per family) on the electoral rolls have been identified. Officials find this unusual and feel instances of forgery can't be ruled out here."



Speaking about the latest case of forgery, Vijay Dev said: "A large-scale scam by those having no identity cards can't be denied in this case… We have lodged a case with the police and requested them to investigate further. There may be more people using forged identity papers or address proof to get voter identity cards. In the present case, 32 persons were found involved in forgery."



Electoral officials discovered the fraud while scanning documents.



"While going through the documents, they noticed Aadhar cards ending with the same numbers. On closer inspection, they found that photocopies of the same Aadhar cards had been used with different photographs. For proof of address they had used the same electricity bills as well," added Dev.



The officer said the involvement of Bangladeshi immigrants is strongly suspected. "It may be a huge racket. They look for Indian citizenship. And, after getting voter cards, they could have got genuine Aadhar cards," he added.



Dev said that the Delhi Assembly elections are near and many complaints about fake voters registered by various political parties against their rivals have been received. There may be some politically-motivated complaints, but all are being verified.



Electoral officers detected another type of fraud related to the electoral rolls.



"This is a case of one building and many names. There are 22,045 households in the city with more than 20 members each. Out of these, 1,810 households have more than 50 members, which is very unlikely and forgery in electoral rolls of such households is strongly suspected," added Dev.



The CEO is keeping close a eye on activities of officials deployed on election duty. "So far 82 officials have been punished. Many of them have been suspended and, in many cases, FIRs have been registered as they were found involved in criminal activities," he added.



