AC Diglipur finds Pradhan guilty of creating false voters: Complainants write to Home Minister, demand CBI inquiry

DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Aug 22: In recent past, Administrative officers at North Andaman got few complaints from people against the Pradhan of R K Gram Mr. Shyamal Bhowmick regarding issue of malicious documents and creating spurious voters to enhance the votes in his favors during the term of PSM.
After repeated submissions of complaints to various authorities the Asst Commissioner Diglipur on July 17th Jul 2017 submitted his Inquiry report to Deputy Commissioner wherein he found the Pradhan guilty of issuing false resident certificates, beyond the power vested on him under the law, which is illegal and amounts to influencing the election process.
While the Pradhan accepted his mistake but ignorance of laws and rules cannot be accepted as a defense for the acts committed in an official capacity.
The complainants alleged that the Pradhan issued false certificates to enroll the applicants in voter list to vote in his favour or his candidates thus the Pradhan as well as the some officials of that tenure allegedly adopted illegal methods to create false voters in Panchayat Election 2015.
Applicants like Sajal Majumder who was residing at 24 Parganas in 2013 with valid voter ID card were issued Andaman Resident certificate of 4 years. Some applications which were rejected by the authorities were marked as approved in overwriting. Some applicants like Romesh Majumdar, Milan Das, and Dakshinaranjan Das who were having Aadhar card of West Bengal were given resident certificate of 4 years wherein all certificates clearly mentioned that those were issued for getting Election Card just ahead of 2015 Election.
The Asst Commissioner in his inquiry report dated 17 July 2017 clearly mentioned that there is no such provision in A & N Islands Panchayat Regulation, 1994 for issue of ‘Resident Certificates by the Panchayat Members and moreover how on the basis of these certificates the administrative officials issued Voter ID cards? Such acts indicate nexus between leaders and authorities. The complainants are now demanding full verification of all the details of such cases about their original residency.
The Andaman & Nicobar Islands Panchayats Regulation 1994, Section 14 clearly says that “A person can be disqualified if he has been disqualified under any law for the time being in force by competent court for adopting a corrupt practice or for commission of an election offence at an election during the period of such disqualification” instead of this Administration has not taken any action since last 13 months.
Meanwhile the complainants in this matter has now written letter to the Home Minister of India and requested for a CBI inquiry in this matter to know how many more such cases exist in entire Andaman and Nicobar Islands.