SIR: Withdraw ‘false’ FIRs by 10 am or NDA will lay siege to all police stations today, says Kumaraswamy

Days after at least four FIRs were registered against BJP workers for seeking deletion of names, mostly of Muslim voters, through Form-7, Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday threatened that if the registration of “false” complaints against BJP and JD(S) workers in connection with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) were not withdrawn by 10 a.m. and police harassment did not stop, the NDA would lay siege to all police stations across the State on Tuesday. 

Speaking to the media along with NDA leaders after submitting a complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), the Minister condemned the Congress government, saying it had played a “political drama” over the registration of FIRs.  “This is the first time in the history of the State that the Chief Minister and the Cabinet themselves have put up such a shameful display,” he said. 

The NDA submitted a complaint against the State government to CEO V. Anbu Kumar on Monday. In their letter, the alliance accused the Congress-led State government of “unlawfully” interfering in and influencing the SIR of electoral rolls and using the police machinery to intimidate people filing Form-7 objections.

NDA leaders, including Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje and Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly R. Ashok, said that members of the ruling Congress and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) workers were “extensively and unduly influencing and interfering” in the process. 

Defending the filing of Form-7 objections, including in bulk, as a legitimate statutory right, the NDA cited the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, under which an objection to the inclusion of a name in the electoral roll has to be filed in Form-7 by a person whose name is already included in the roll “for corrections”. The NDA said Form-7 objections were subject to scrutiny, with the ERO required to issue notices and conduct an inquiry before taking a decision. 

Citing these provisions, the NDA alleged that the State government was using the police to target people filing Form-7 objections, particularly BJP workers and those sympathetic to the party. It alleged that, instead of restricting action to Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which deals with false statements and declarations, the police were registering cases invoking offences such as cheating, forgery, intimidation and breach of peace. 

Pointing further to the protest held by Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and his cabinet colleagues at the CEO office on October 1, NDA said it amounted to pressure on the CEO’s office, stating that the CEO appeared to have “succumbed” to pressure from the State government.  The parties said the CM’s protest and the CEO’s circular issued on the same day directing EROs to take action against anyone knowingly filing false statements, had created apprehension among people who had filed Form-7 applications, who now feared criminal cases.