Two lakh ‘forged’ voter slips seized

UJJAIN: Around 2 lakh voter slips of Ujjain (North) constituency have been seized from a private binder’s house here on Monday. Police have registered an FIR and are investigating as to how the slips, meant to be distributed by the Election Commission, found their way to the private place.
Acting on a complaint made by Congress, the police raided house of one Suresh Pandya near Rajaswa Colony where bundles of the voter slips were found.Pandya told the police that someone has given him for perforation the same evening.
Returning officer and joint collector Jayant Joshi said the EC has given two formats of voter slips this time — one to be distributed by booth level officer (BLO) to the voters and second which political parties could take from the RO office and could distribute.
The format of slips to be distributed through BLO is comprehensive with names, polling centres, EPIC card numbers, date and time of polling and photographs whereas format for political parties is shorter and have fewer details. The slips recovered are meant for BLO distribution, Joshi said.
CSP Vijay Dawar however said that the slips are forged ones. “The slips look like photocopy of original with hiding the line ‘signature of returning officer/BLO’ has been done. The slips have to be matched with official list so as to ascertain whether any manipulation with data like name or photograph is committed,” Dawar said.
A case under sections of Representation of the People Act and IPC was being registered against the binder and further links would be explored. Sources said the job to provide printouts of voter slips for Ujjain were assigned to an Indore based firm and soft copies of data of lists lies with the printer and election office only.
Meanwhile, Congress city spokesman Rajesh Tiwari alleged that BJP candidate Paras Jain who is a minister, was pressurizing the administration. “A proper inquiry as to what was the motive behind illegally obtaining the voter slips should be done,” he added.