DEO orders inquiry into fake death declarations in Vijayapura

K. Anand, Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer (DEO), Vijayapura, has ordered an inquiry into allegations that some objectors in the city had created false death certificates to seek the deletion of names of some voters under the Systematic Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

This follows a memorandum submitted by at least eight people who presented themselves before the district electoral office in Vijayapura on Saturday (October 3, 2026). They said they had been declared dead in Form 7 applications by some objectors in the city, who had used fudged documents.

Allama Bagwan, a government school teacher, was shocked to find that someone had submitted a third-party objection under Form 7, saying she had died. The Booth Level Officer (BLO) informed her that an application had been submitted stating she was no more.

“The BLO is a fellow government school teacher. He visited my house and collected details from me. He assured me that my name would not be deleted from the rolls. But I was shocked to find out that someone had managed to procure a death certificate saying I was dead,” she told officials.

Similarly, Abdul Razak Bagwan, Malanbi Jamadar, Mumtaj Mulla and four others were shocked when they learnt that documents showing them as dead had been submitted to delete their names from the voters’ list.

This was flagged by Congress leaders who went door to door to find out if there were mismatches between the existing rolls and the current SIR exercise. They found that some followers of Mr. Yatnal, an expelled BJP MLA, had filed objections to the inclusion of these names, after affixing fake death certificates of at least eight people along with Form 7 applications seeking their deletion.

“They also found out that the certificates were issued by competent authorities, but lacked details. In several cases, the names of parents or spouses did not match with those of the victims. This is a clear case of Mr. Yatnal and other Hindutva leaders trying to target Muslim voters. We demand a comprehensive investigation and legal action against those responsible for this,” Abdul Hamid Mushrif, a Congress leader, told reporters on Sunday (October 4, 2026).

He claimed that attempts were made to remove about 1,046 voters belonging to the minority community from the electoral rolls, across 198 polling stations of the Bijapur city constituency, by falsely claiming they were deceased.

Mr. Mushrif said documents claiming certain voters had died were submitted on the letterhead of Mr. Yatnal. “We were always suspicious of him, as he was always saying Muslims were involved in bogus voting. However, local verification by Congress Booth Level Agents (BLAs) revealed that these voters were alive. We also seek an inquiry into these fake certificates. Who issued those certificates without any inquiry and on whose request?” he said.

He noted that making a false declaration could be a punishable offence under the law. He said the authenticity of the submitted death certificates and other documents must be verified, and that if the use of incorrect documents or false information was confirmed, action should be taken against those concerned under election laws and other applicable statutes.