New Delhi: The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of the Mustafabad Assembly constituency in north-east Delhi on Friday filed a police complaint seeking registration of an FIR under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, against a booth-level agent (BLA) named as the objector in a set of Form 7 applications, after election officials found that 36 of the 37 applications were false or fabricated.

Source: The Hindu

North East District Election Officer Ajay Kumar told The Hindu that officials had independently verified the reports and found 36 out of 37 Form 7s to be fake or fabricated. A press release from his office said the ERO filed the complaint in connection with reports in the press and on social media regarding the fake and fabricated Form 7 applications.

Source: The Hindu

According to the district election office, all 37 forms were examined by the Booth Level Officer and the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer. Three voters who had been declared dead in the applications were found alive at their addresses, and only one of the 37 cases was found to be true. "Only one case was found to be true while 36 cases were found to be false/fabricated," the press release said, adding that action under Section 31 was invoked because the objector had allegedly knowingly made a false statement in Form 7.

Source: Madhyamam Online

Form 7 is the application through which a person can object to a name on the electoral roll or seek its deletion, for example on grounds of death or a permanent change of residence. The applications were filed during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi.

The complaint follows an investigation by The Hindu published on October 30, which found that voters named in deletion applications in Mustafabad's polling part 129 were still living at their registered addresses. The forms named Chandra Shekhar Nainwal, who is listed in Election Commission records as a booth-level agent registered with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); he had denied filing the forms. The allegation that the applications were filed by him has not been proved, and the police complaint will now be examined by the police.

The Hindu's wider analysis found that more than 77 per cent of the 1,021 Form 7 applications received in Mustafabad till November 3 named 20 BJP booth-level agents as objectors, and its reporting said several of those agents denied filing or signing the forms attributed to them. District Election Officer Ajay Kumar said verification and investigation of other Form 7 applications was under way.

Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, provides for action against a person who makes a false declaration in connection with the preparation or revision of an electoral roll. Whether an FIR is registered on the ERO's complaint, and what the police investigation finds, remains to be seen.