The Haveri district administration has unearthed a case of fake voter identity cards in which the proprietor of a ‘Samanya Seva Kendra’ (Common Service Centre) was involved.
Proprietor of the centre Jeevan Narasing Rajput has been arrested. The Haveri police have registered a case under sections 465, 468, and 470 of the IPC.
A team of officials, led by Additional Deputy Commissioner of Haveri S. Yogeshwar and others, conducted a raid on the centre, after the driver of the Additional Deputy Commissioner was issued a fake voter ID card. Subsequently, the authorities seized various documents, a laptop, a computer, a printer, a lamination machine, and a hard disk.
Mr. Yogeshwar said the raid was done after his office received information on issue of fake voter ID card on payment of extra money at the centre and a team was formed for the purpose.
“I sent my car driver Abhishek and police constable Vinayak Malavalli in plain clothes to the centre seeking ID cards. The car driver was issued a fake ID card and immediately we conducted the raid,” he said.
Later, Mr. Yogeshwar told The Hindu over the telephone that so far they had come across three fake voter ID cards and also cards of various government schemes. “The accused has revealed that he had purchased a software from Haryana-based firm using which he was issuing fake ID cards,” he said.
Mr. Yogehswar said that along with police investigation, a technical team from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) had also been asked to conduct inquiry into the issue.
