Days after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Lok Sabha candidate from South Delhi Raghav Chadha tweeted about a bunch of voter identification cards being found dumped at roadside in Badarpur, the state election office has raised several queries in its ongoing investigation in the matter.

Officials in the district election officer (DEO) Southeast, investigating the issue, said it was only after they wrote to the AAP leader to file a complaint regarding the allegedly dumped voter cards that a formal complaint was lodged.

“Several grey areas have come during the course of investigation such as why did the AAP leader wait for the election officer to write to him to file a complaint. Second, there is no proof of where the voter cards were actually found, as the party members had brought the cards to their office without making a call to the police or the state election authorities,” said a senior official requesting anonymity.

The investigation report is expected to be handed over to Delhi’s chief electoral officer (CEO) within two days, the official said.

On Monday, district election officer (Southeast) Harleen Kaur had wrote to Chadha requesting him to file a complaint. On the same day, the AAP leader filed a complaint with the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) demanding an enquiry into the alleged discovery of the cards.

On Sunday, Chadha had tweeted a photograph of voter-ID cards and said that over 200 such cards were allegedly found from a garbage dump at a roadside in Badarpur area.

Calling the election office’s concerns “baseless”, Chadha said, “Early in the morning on Monday, I had called up the Delhi CEO to tell him that I will be filing a complaint with the CEC. At least three hours before I got the DEO’s letter on mail, I had spoken to her over the phone to tell that I will be dispatching the cards discovered to her office.”

He further said that a number of voter cards of Deoli and Chhatarpur assembly constituencies have been missing.

“The election office has failed in its constitutional responsibility of dispatching, distributing and delivering voter-ID cards to citizens. The process has been hijacked by the central government and the cards have been systematically thrown away. This is why they have not reached the voters,” said Chadha.

First Published: Apr 18, 2019 11:08 IST