A day after Ravi Padasalagi filed his nomination papers as an Independent candidate for the election to Karnataka West Graduates constituency of the Legislative Council, the authorities found that the signatures of the proposers were fake. A case of fraud has been booked against him.
The Savanur police in Haveri district have booked a case against Mr. Ravi for forging signatures of his proposers in his nomination papers under Sections of 420, 465, 468, 471 of the IPC and under 125(A) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, based on a complaint filed by the Assistant Commissioner of Savanur Annapurna Mudakammanavar.
Mr. Padasalagi, a resident of Bengaluru, had filed his first nomination papers for the election in Dharwad on Monday. At the time of acceptance of the papers, a casual perusal of the application had revealed disparities in the signatures of the proposers when checked with official data.
Subsequently, the Assistant Returning Officer and Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad Nitesh Patil wrote to the Deputy Commissioner of Haveri to look into the issue as the proposers were from Haveri district.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Haveri S. Yogeshwar told The Hindu that both he and the Assistant Commissioner of Savanur perused the documents and called the proposers for confirmation of their signatures.