In a major embarrassment for the Congress party, the Election Commission told the Supreme Court today that Congress has misled the court by producing fabricated documents, and the petitioners should be punished for that.
Earlier this year, Congress had alleged that there are 42 lakh duplicate voters in the Gujarat voter list. They had cited a study conducted by thepolitics.in, which was commissioned by the Congress party. Party had made similar allegations for Madhya Pradesh also, saying they have detected nearly 60 lakh fake voters in the state.
Making this allegation, Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot had filed a petition in the Supreme Court. Following this, the apex court had issued a notice to Election Commission to respond to the allegations. Election Commission had denied the allegations and said that these are “misleading and misconceived”. The Commission had asserted that it had always upheld the integrity and purity of the electoral process and was committed to holding “free and fair elections”.
Today, the Election Commission told the supreme court that the petition of the Congress party is based on fake evidence. The poll panel said that the voter lists available of the EC’s website were tampered with and then presented before the court as evidence. They informed the court that lists submitted by the Congress had photos and names that were fudged.
The Election Commission also said that the Congress party leaders should be punished for furnishing fabricated voter list.
Congress party has denied the allegation, its advocate Kapil Sibal said that the list was published on a private website, and tried to shift the blame for fabricating voter lists by asking why EC has not started an investigation against the website.
The apex court has fixed October 8 as the next date for hearing in the case.