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Pawar described the filing of the FIR as “ridiculous” and said he was just demonstrating how “flawed” the Aadhaar card system was and stressed that there was no fraud involved in his action.
Speaking to reporters in Pune on October 30, the opposition MLA said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis should have called him to ask for details and ordered a probe into the matter. “But after wasting 15 days, they have just filed a useless FIR,” the NCP (SP) general secretary said.
During a press conference on 16 October, Pawar showed how fake Aadhaar cards were being generated on a website and used to register fake voters.
BJP’s social media cell co-convenor Dhananjay Vagaskar had seen this content on a YouTube channel, in which allegations were also made against an official of his party.
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Taking serious cognizance of this, Vagaskar filed a police complaint against the unknown creator, website owner and user and others, a police officer said.
According to the FIR, the complainant claimed that a fraudulent act was committed by the political leader, which endangered social security by inciting anger and hatred among the public against “an autonomous institution in India” and his party (BJP).
He alleged that an attempt was made to mislead by creating Aadhaar cards through fake websites and to create discord and enmity between two groups in the society.
Based on the complaint, the cyber police on Tuesday registered a case against two unidentified persons under sections of the Indian Justice Code for forgery, identity theft, spreading false information and provisions of the Information Technology Act, he said.
Rohit Pawar had on October 16 alleged that after the adverse results of the BJP-led grand alliance in the Lok Sabha elections last year, irregularities such as registration of fake voters, large-scale deletion of names of genuine voters and double registration of voters had taken place.
Pawar claimed that “adverse” voters were shown dead and fraudulent voting took place in the names of dead persons.
Between the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, 32 lakh voters were added, which is equivalent to the addition of 6.5 lakh voters per year or 54,000 voters per month. But between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra Assembly elections, 48 lakh voters were added in just six months, the NCP (SP) leader said.
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He had alleged that after the Lok Sabha elections, in his own Karjat Jamkhed assembly constituency in western Maharashtra, 14,292 voters were added, 5,360 names were removed and 14,162 duplicate names were inserted in the voter list.
The NCP (SP) MLA said there were instances where the Aadhaar card of a voter from one constituency was used to register another voter from another constituency by changing the photo and name.
On Thursday, Pawar defended his action of pointing out “lapses” in issuing Aadhaar cards, a key identity document.
He said, “All the points mentioned in the FIR are irrelevant. Through my performance, I was only trying to tell the government that there are loopholes in the Aadhaar system and there is some software through which fake Aadhaar cards can be made.”
The NCP (SP) general secretary alleged that the BJP has used fake Aadhaar cards for election purposes.
“That’s why, when I demonstrated making fake Aadhaar cards in the name of Trump, BJP felt threatened and filed an FIR,” he said.
The MLA said the police machinery should be used to address genuine issues and not to target political opponents.
“If needed, I will go to court,” he said, adding that the case has been registered on the complaint of a BJP functionary.
“Police investigated, but the crime was registered on the complaint of a BJP troll. If a person who gets 40 paise per tweet files a complaint, why should I give it any importance?” He said. PTI