The court has issued a notice to Sonia Gandhi on the allegation of her name being in the voter list before citizenship. This petition challenges the order of dismissal of the complaint by the lower court. Priyanka Gandhi has called these allegations completely false.
New Delhi: Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday rejected the allegations against her mother Sonia Gandhi that her name was in the voter list before getting citizenship. He said- This is completely false. Sonia Gandhi cast her vote only after becoming a citizen. I don’t know why they are after her when she is about to turn 80. He has dedicated his entire life to the service of the country. Now at this age they should be spared. Let us tell you, the Sessions Court of Rouse Avenue on Tuesday issued notice to Sonia Gandhi while hearing a revision petition challenging the September order of the magistrate dismissing the complaint alleging wrongful inclusion of names in the voter list of 1980-81.
This direction was given by Sessions Judge Vishal Gogane after hearing the initial arguments on behalf of the revision petitioner. Senior advocate Pawan Narang, appearing for revision petitioner Vikas Tripathi, argued that the matter needed to be reconsidered as the material on record showed that there were serious irregularities in the way Sonia Gandhi’s name was entered in the voter list before she became an Indian citizen.
He said that “some documents must have been forged and manipulated to get his name registered in the 1980 voter list,” stressing that his name was later deleted and then re-entered in 1983 on the basis of an application filed in January 1983, both incidents, according to him, before he acquired citizenship.
Narang argued that the Representation of the People Act clearly allows only a citizen of India to be enrolled as a voter, and therefore, these entries raised questions that needed judicial scrutiny. He said that while the initial complaint was based on an article containing clips of voter lists, the revision petitioner has now obtained certified copies from the Election Commission, which have been placed on record to corroborate the claim. After considering the arguments, Judge Gogne issued notices to both the defendants, including Sonia Gandhi.
The prosecutor accepted the notice on behalf of the state. The Court also directed that the Trial Court Records (TCR) be summoned for a complete assessment of the issues raised in the revision. The case has now been listed for further hearing on January 6, when the Sessions Court will continue to examine the challenge to the magistrate’s order dismissing the complaint at the initial stage. The review petition pertains to a complaint filed by lawyer Vikas Tripathi, which was dismissed by the magistrate at the initial stage saying it lacked legal basis and was based only on non-certified photocopies of electoral records from 1980. The magistrate had also said that questions related to citizenship and electoral rolls fall entirely within the jurisdiction of the central government and the Election Commission of India, and cannot be decided through a criminal complaint.