BENGALURU: Police filed a criminal lawsuit against 14 people, including N Munirathna who is Congress sitting MLA and RR Nagar candidate, on Wednesday in links with the seizure of almost 10,000  fake voter ID cards from an apartment in Bengaluru’s Jalahalli constituency.

Deputy election commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar have done investigation complete  into the incident and submit a report to the Election Commission of India (ECI).

“Multiple reports are with ECI for its consideration… It will be inappropriate to talk about the issue at this stage. More definitive information will be provided in public at an appropriate time,” chief electoral officer (CEO) Sanjiv Kumar asserted on Thursday as quoted by TOI.

 Accused Munirathna said, “I’ve distributed 40,000 pamphlets asking for votes for me in my constituency and you will find them in every home in my segment. I’ve been named as accused no. 14 because one such pamphlet was found in the flat that was raided. This is an outrageous complaint against me and part of the concerted propaganda to harass and humiliate me.”

On the question of Munirathna’s candidature as he named in the FIR, Sanjiv Kumar said measly naming of a person in an FIR does not block him from fighting elections. “FIR is not the chargesheet and nor is it conviction. So, there is no bar on the person’s candidature,” he asserted.

Police informed they have named the apartment landlord Manjula Nanjamari and others as accused persons based on the complaint filed by a BBMP official, who conducted the operation and raided the premises for violations of Model Code of Conduct (MCC).