The Election Commission of Karnataka on Tuesday confirmed that they have recovered 9,746 Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) from an apartment in Bengaluru's Jalahalli area of Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency.
In a midnight briefing on Tuesday, Sanjiv Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer for Karnataka informed that as per the preliminary verification the ID cards are of actual electors and appears to be prima facie genuine.
He, however, added that the significance of the counterfoils can only be verified after due investigation.
The recovery was made, during a surprise visit to Parkview apartment in Jalahalli area, which belongs to Manjula Nanjamuri and was allegedly rented to a person named Rakesh.
As per the State Election Commission, the voter ID cards were kept neatly in small bundles wrapped in paper with some names and phones on the paper.
Apart from this, five laptops, one printer and two large steel trunks with counterfoils strips resembling acknowledgment slips of form 6 used for new addition of names onto the electoral rolls were also recovered from the apartment during the raid.
"These may be numbering around a lakh. There is a need for further verification and inquiry. These have photographs and a printed number in magenta colour which is different than the officially available Form 6 which has no printed number," Kumar said.
The State Election Commission added that an FIR has been registered in the matter and further investigations will be conducted on the same.
It further assured in the next 24 hours when more information is available firm action will be taken.
The situation is being closely monitored by the Election Commission of India and appropriate action will be taken on polling in Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency, informed the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer.
There are 4,35,439 electors in Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency, with Elector Population (EP) ratio of 75.43.
During the last Special Summary Revision, 25,825 additions were made, 19,012 additions were done during Continuous Updation and there have been total deletions of 8817 persons.
Earlier, the BJP alleged that the Congress candidate from Rajarajeshwari Nagara, Munirathna Naidu is behind the fake ID cards.
"Close to 20,000 fake Voters ID card recovered from @INCIndia's Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency candidate Muniratna," Karnataka BJP tweeted.
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