Rawat, Rajat vote row: EC denies access to IP address of culprits

HYDERABAD: The probe into the fake voter enrollment of chief electoral officer Dr Rajat Kumar and former Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat has hit a roadblock as the Election Commission of India said that it is not possible to give the Internet Protocol addresses of those who uploaded the fraudulent application for voter enrollment.


Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation officials who okayed the application without verification will be prosecuted by the Central Crime Station sleuths after they get prosecution sanction orders from the state government.

But the culprits who applied under Rajat Kumar and Rawat’s names cannot be traced. This is the second case where the EC authorities have denied releasing the IP address. Recently, the Andhra Pradesh Special Investigation Team probing the mass deletion of voters in AP faced a similar roadblock as the EC said the IP address can’t be traced.

The Assistant Commissioner of Police CCS N Sanjeeva Rao told TOI, “We received the communication from EC via the District Election officer. They said that they are unable to provide IP addresses. The Election Commission however asked us to go ahead with the investigation based on the other evidence present in the case,”

The investigation already found that two GHMC officials, Ali and Saleemuddin, who worked as

Electoral Registration Officer

and Assistant ERO were negligent in their duties and approved the fake enrolment without verification.

The case was initially registered on January 26 after GHMC officials lodged a complaint regarding the mischief.

Their voter IDs were issued in Masab Tank area polling booth. A cheating and impersonation case was registered.

Investigators are at a loss as even the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is not giving out information regarding fake Aadhaars created for applying the said voter IDs.