Plea alleges forgery over inclusion of Sonia Gandhi's name in electoral roll, seeks probe

A plea on Tuesday sought action against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi alleging her name was included in the electoral rolls three years before she became an Indian citizen.

The application before additional chief judicial magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia under Section 175 (4) (power of magistrate to order investigation) has sought directions to police for investigation into the allegation that Gandhi became an Indian citizen in 1983, but her name was in the 1980 electoral roll.

Senior advocate Pavan Narang appearing for the complainant, Vikas Tripathi, argued that according to some documents, it was clear that Sonia Gandhi took citizenship on April 30, 1983. He said her name was included in the electoral roll as a voter of the New Delhi constituency in 1980, which was deleted in 1982, and again re-entered in 1983 after she acquired Indian citizenship.

"The reason for the deletion is nowhere to be found. There can be two reasons, either someone takes the citizenship of another country or files a form 8 (application for correction in particulars), but the prerequisite is that the person has to be a citizen," Narang said. "What documents were given to the election commission (EC) when her name got included in 1980?" he asked.

He claimed there was "some forgery" and that a public authority had been "cheated." "My limited request is either direct the police to register an FIR under appropriate sections. Whether they are made out or not is the domain of the police," Narang said.

He said that in the interim period, a notice could be issued to police for filing of a status report.

The court has posted the matter for September 10.