HC quashes summoning order against Haryana politician Kataria

FORMER SPORTS MINISTER SUKHBIR KATARIA HAD WON 2009 POLLS FROM GURUGRAM BY 2,140 VOTES; THE ALLEGATIONS WERE ALSO OF MISUSE OF RATION CARD FOR ENROLMENT

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has quashed summoning order by a Gurugram court against former Haryana sports minister Sukhbir Kataria in a 2012 fake voters’ case.

The complaint was lodged in 2012 by one Om Prakash who had alleged that 3,865 persons had been enrolled as voters twice and they had cast two votes at both places in 2009 assembly elections.

Kataria had won the 2009 election from Gurugram by 2,140 votes. The allegations were also of misuse of the electricity bill, ration card, etc for enrolment as voters.

The HC bench of justice GS Sandhawalia, while quashing the summoning order, observed that the magistrate ignored a report approved by Gurugram commissioner of police, who had been directed by the HC to look into the issue. Police, in the report, had claimed that the complainant did not cooperate and Kataria was also given a clean chit.

The court also found that summoning of Kataria was on the basis of photocopy of documents on the basis of which, trial court had concluded that his handwriting and signatures matched with that of one used in the alleged forged documents.

“The allegations of forgery to fill out the forms on part of Kataria as such would not be justified by the trial court in the absence of originals and without an opinion of any expert evidence,” the court recorded.

FIR against food & supply department officer also quashed

The HC also quashed the FIR against Devinder Singh Kadiyan, a Haryana food and supply department officer, who was also an accused in the case.