Book Modi, Amit Shah, Gyanesh Kumar in criminal cases: Prakash Raj

Hyderabad: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls must be scrapped and the old voters list restored by reversing the deletion of 13 crore voters, veteran actor and political activist Prakash Raj demanded. Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad on Saturday, October 3, Raj also called for the existing system of selecting members of the Election Commission to be restored to its earlier form, according to The Hindu.

He demanded that the judicial immunity granted to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar be withdrawn and criminal cases be registered against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the CEC.

Raj said his investigation, covering 100 polling booths across 23 districts of Karnataka, had uncovered numerous cases of voters allegedly being removed arbitrarily. Those affected included residents of a colony displaced by a fire and transgender voters without fixed names or permanent addresses.

He questioned the haste surrounding the SIR process and its impact on people challenging deletions. He pointed to 88 lakh petitions filed before the SIR appellate tribunals in West Bengal, saying the backlog could take 12 to 15 years to clear, leaving voters uncertain about their electoral rights.

Raj also questioned the delay in submitting the report on the SIR sought by the Supreme Court, noting that 15 weeks had passed since the court's two-week deadline. He alleged that replacing the Chief Justice of India with a Union Cabinet minister on the ECI selection committee and granting immunity to the CEC were intended to enable political influence over the poll body.

He criticised opposition parties for failing to strongly oppose the process and said poor people, Adivasis and women were among those affected. BJP workers protested outside the venue before his press conference.