Case registered against 8 MLCs over voting in BBMP elections

BENGALURU:  An FIR has been registered against eight members of the Legislative Council at the Vidhana Soudha police station for allegedly deliberately misleading the Election Commission of India (EC) to get voting rights during the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s mayoral polls. They have also been accused of furnishing fake bills to claim travel allowances even though they claim they are residents of Bengaluru.

In his private complaint before the Additional City Civil and Sessions Court, Ramanna R H J, state working president of the Republican Party of India, alleged that eight MLCs had “furnished false information to get their names included in the electoral roll of the EC to get voting power” during the corporation’s mayoral elections. The FIR was filed based on the private complaint.The eight MLCs are S Ravi, N S Bosaraju, M D Laxminarayan, R B Thimmapur, Allum Veerabhadrappa and Raghu Achar from Congress, and C R Manohar and Appajigowda from JD(S). 

According to the complaint, it is alleged that the accused enrolled themselves in the electoral rolls of the city between July 4, 2016 to October 20, 2016. They have also been accused of cheating under Section 31 of The Representation of People’s Act, which prohibits elected representatives or other people from making false declarations. 

The complainant also alleged that the accused cheated the state government of `20.89 lakh through fake travel bills. Of the eight MLCs accused in the case, the highest allowance claim of `7.38 lakh, was made by Congress’ N S Bosaraju. While he had furnished a Sadashivanagar address to BBMP, he claimed travel allowance saying that he travelled from Raichur.