Suresh Gopi to stand trial in two cases of forgery, cheating

Kerala has 2,77,49,159 voters in all as per the final voters’ list for the April 26 Lok Sabha elections.

The number includes 1,43,33,499 women, 1,34,15,293 men and 367 transgender voters, Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Kaul said on Friday. The updated list has 5,34,394 firsttime voters aged between 18 and 19, he said.

There has been an increase of 6,49,833 voters since the final list was published on January 22. Election officials also removed 2,01,417 individuals from the list as part of a ‘purification process’ aimed at removing the

Actor Suresh Gopi, the BJP candidate in the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency, will have to stand trial in two cases of forgery and cheating related to the registration of his two luxury cars in Puducherry as a trial court here rejected his discharge petition.

The special court trying the cases against MPs and MLAs rejected the discharge petition on Friday evening. The reasons ascribed by the court for rejecting the plea of the BJP leader will be known when the court order is released in public domain. names of absent, shifted and deceased (ASD) voters.

Among the districts, Malappuram has the highest number of voters at 33,93,884. Wayanad has the lowest at 6,35,930. Malappuram also has the highest number of women voters (16,97,132), while Thiruvananthapuram has the most transgender voters (94). There are 89,839 NRI voters in the State, with the highest number in Kozhikode district (35,793). The electoral rolls also have 6,27,045 voters above the age of 80.

Election officials had given time till March 25 for eligible citizens to add their names to the final list, the Chief Electoral Officer said.

The prosecution case was that the accused had purchased two brand new Audi motor cars on January 20, 2010 and December 11, 2016 from a car dealer in Kochi. Later, the accused used fake address proof to register the two cars at the Puducherry Regional Transport Office for tax evasion. The acts of the actorturnedpolitician, according to the prosecution, caused a loss of ₹19 lakh to the State.

The case pertains to the registration of his two luxury cars in Puducherry by ‘using fake address proof’

Prosecution case

The prosecution had invoked Indian Penal Code Section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), Section 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), and Section 471 (using a forged document as genuine) and Section the 40 of the Motor Vehicles Act, which states that a motor vehicle must be registered with the registering authority in whose jurisdiction the owner resides or where the vehicle is normally kept.

The then senior Assistant Public Prosecutor M.S. Aromal Unni had argued that the BJP leader was a permanent resident of Thiruvananthapuram and had not resided in Puducherry. The actor had dishonestly obtained an insurance policy with a residence certificate in Puducherry where he had never resided, he argued.

‘No further payment’

According to the prosecution, the actor had made only one remittance towards the insurance policy and ignored its further payment, which proved his fraudulent intentions in obtaining the document. The false documents, which were intentionally obtained for cheating, were produced as genuine for obtaining the registration certificates of his cars, it was argued. The prosecution case was later conducted by the Assistant Public Prosecutor Sumy P. Baby.

The accused had never resided in Puducherry district and dishonestly obtained the insurance policy in a temporary address where he never resided. The car that was purchased in 2016 was given for service five times between February 10, 2016, and October 12, 2017, at Kundannoor in Kochi.

The vehicle was also booked 10 times for traffic violations during the period, which indicated that the car was used in Kerala in a daily manner for hours and normally kept in Kerala.

Mr. Gopi, who had given the address of an apartment complex in Puducherry in the insurance certificate, later produced a lease document dated April 1, 2014 for four years. However, the stamp paper used for the lease deed was purchased on March 3, 2012, which indicated that the lease deed too was fake, the prosecution argued.

The counsel for Mr. Gopi said he would challenge the trial court order shortly.