• Source:JND
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A Delhi Court on Thursday rejected a petition seeking criminal proceedings against senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over allegations that her name was included in the electoral rolls three years before she obtained Indian citizenship. The Rouse Avenue Court, in its judgment on September 11, rejected claims that the Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson was registered as a voter in 1980, three years before becoming an Indian citizen.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Vaibhav Chaurasiya, who reserved the order in the case on Wednesday, delivered his judgment today, dismissing pleas seeking criminal proceedings against Sonia Gandhi.

What Was The Plea?

The plea accused Sonia Gandhi of forging documents to secure her enrolment on the voter list before obtaining Indian citizenship. The counsel of the petitioner argued that the inclusion of Gandhi’s name in the electoral roll for the year 1980-81 was irregular, asserting that she was not an Indian citizen at that time.

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They further stated that the “first threshold to be enrolled as a voter” is Indian citizenship, followed by the provision of valid address proof.

“In January 1980, she was not a citizen of India. How then could her name be included in the electoral rolls?”Hindustan Times quoted senior advocate Pavan Narang as saying.

Narang further claimed that Gandhi’s name was removed from the electoral roll in 1982 and was re-entered in 1983 after she obtained Indian citizenship. During his arguments, he cited the 1985 Allahabad High Court judgement in Rakesh Singh vs Sonia Gandhi, which had acknowledged that Sonia Gandhi became an Indian citizen on April 30, 1983.

Earlier last month, BJP leader Amit Malviya alleged that Sonia Gandhi’s name was included in the 1980 electoral rolls alongside Indira, Rajiv, Sanjay, and Maneka Gandhi, citing excerpts of what he claimed were electoral roll forms from 1980. “Her name first appeared on the rolls in 1980 - three years before she became an Indian citizen and while she still held Italian citizenship,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

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