Hyderabad: Official suspended for fake voter ID

Hyderabad: GHMC commissioner M. Dana Kishore, who is also the Hyderabad district electoral officer, on Friday suspended assistant electoral registration officer Mohammed Khaleeluddin, assistant city planner, for including the names of senior election officials without verifying them and for issuing fake voter IDs.

The names of Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and TS Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar were found on the electoral rolls in the Nampally Assembly constituency, causing much embarrassment to the officials.

Mr Kishore after conducting a detailed inquiry into the issue after it was reported by Congress candidate Feroz Khan, suspended Mr Khaleeluddin.

Mr Kishore said, “It has been noticed that Mr Khaleeluddin failed to verify the electoral rolls and accepted the claims without field verification by the booth level officer by flouting the guidelines and instructions issued by the Election Commission of India/CEO.”

He said Mr Khaleeluddin recommended for inclusion the names of Mr Arora and Mr Kumar to the ERO login, “which shows his negligence and carelessness in performing statutory duties, which is prima facie established that he is responsible for the commission of the above lapses."

Mr Kumar said that Mr Khaleeluddin had been suspended by exercising powers conferred under sub-rule (1) of Rule 8 of Classification, Control and Appeal (CCA) Rules, 1991. Mr Kumar asked Mr Khaleeluddin not to leave Hyderabad without obtaining prior permission from the GHMC head quarters.

Mr Kishore also issued charge memo to M.K. Ali who was acting as electoral registration officer.