Jharkhand SIR: BJP booth agent arrested over bulk Form 7s targeting Muslim voters in Godda

Godda: A Bharatiya Janata Party booth-level agent was arrested and later released on bail in Jharkhand’s Godda district after being accused of submitting about 200 Form 7 applications seeking the deletion of Muslim voters during the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls.

The agent, Vinay Kumar Mandal, was taken into custody on 3 September but was granted bail hours later, Godda Muffasil Police Station Inspector Anand Sah told The Indian Express.

The case follows a complaint by voter Mukarram Ansari, who alleged that Mandal submitted roughly 200 Form 7s relating to a single booth — No 231 in Pachrukhi village — and that all the names listed were of genuine Muslim voters. Booth-level officer Sajida Bibi said her own name and that of her husband also appeared on the list of applications submitted by Mandal, and that all the forms related to Muslim voters.

Mandal told the newspaper he had gone to submit the forms after being told to do so at a meeting of BJP booth-level agents, and claimed the officer had initially agreed to take the forms and issue a receipt. He acknowledged that most of the forms he submitted concerned Muslim voters but said similar applications had also been filed in his own Hindu-majority village.

An FIR was registered against him under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita relating to forgery and intentional insult intended to provoke a breach of the peace, as well as Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act covering false declarations in the preparation of electoral rolls. The district election officer has ordered a probe into the mass submission of Form 7 applications.