Two college students held with 299 voter IDS
POSTAL BALLOT FOR COPS FAILS TO MAKE IMPACT
MUMBAI: Two collegians were arrested by the Bandra police on Wednesday on charges of forgery, after they were found to be in possession of 299 voter identity cards in Bandra (West).
The police said the two, of whom one is a minor, are affiliated to the Congress party and they are on the lookout for four of their accomplices. The police are also checking the authenticity of the cards, and suspect they belong to residents of the Raul Nagar slums and may have been taken from them to ensure they turn up to vote.
The duo was part of a group of six people manning a desk near Lilavati Hospital, opposite Rangsharda in Bandra (West), around 2pm, when the police approached them. “We confiscated 299 voter IDS found with the group. Two people have been taken into custody,” said Dhananjay Kulkarni, deputy commissioner of police and spokesperson of the Mumbai police.
The Congress candidate from the constituency and sitting MLA Baba Siddique, however, said, “This could be a plot against us. Anybody can claim to be a Congress party worker. I am not aware of any such incident.”
A laptop and a voters’ list, with most residents from Bandra, have also been seized and the police are recording the statement of Virdhawal Khade, the assistant returning officer of the constituency. The ambitious project for policemen to cast their votes through postal ballot failed to yield the expected results, owing to shortage of time allotted to the whole process. As many as 19,308 postal ballot forms were distributed, of which approximately 8,000 forms were returned to authorities.
forgery against the duo and are on the lookout for their four accomplices,” said Shivajirao Kolekar, assistant commissioner of police, Bandra division.
“We will probe their association with the party, and have seized their mobile phones,” said another officer, requesting anonymity.
Samir Rai, a candidate from the Peace Party, had approached the Bandra police, following which the case was registered. Investigations to ascertain how the accused procured the voters’