BAREILLY: A booth-level officer in Bareilly has been suspended after the names of 26 eligible voters were deleted from the electoral roll in a village in Shergarh block, with villagers alleging the deletions were carried out in collusion with a former village head, officials said on Thursday.
Nafis Mohammad Khan, an assistant teacher at the composite school in Mohammadpur who had been assigned BLO duty, was suspended with immediate effect by Basic Shiksha Adhikari Vinita after a three-member committee questioned him and sought documents explaining the deletions. He has been attached to a school in Sahsa village in Meerganj block for the suspension period.
The complaint was filed by Rahul Gangwar, the current head of Mohammadpur gram panchayat, who alleged that the BLO colluded with former village head Rehman Khan to get the names of 26 Hindu voters struck off the roll in exchange for money. An inquiry at the level of the sub-divisional magistrate and the block development officer found the allegations had prima facie substance, officials said, and forwarded their findings to the election office and the education department.
District Magistrate Avinash Singh said the administration is examining whether the names were removed deliberately as part of a conspiracy, out of communal prejudice, or because of a technical error, and that a separate committee has been constituted to look into it. For the departmental inquiry, Block Education Officer (Fatehganj West) Bhanu Shankar Gangwar has been appointed inquiry officer, with directions to file a chargesheet and a detailed report within 15 days after the BSA's approval.
Several villagers, including Ved Prakash, Hemkali, Lalita Devi, Rakesh and Thakurain Lal, have submitted affidavits to the administration alleging that their names were wrongly deleted.
The suspension comes as deletions during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) have become a national flashpoint. The Election Commission said this week that previously enrolled voters whose names are missing from draft SIR rolls can file Form 6 without fear of prosecution, and on Thursday the Bombay High Court at Goa ordered the commission to restore six members of a family to the rolls in the Santa Cruz constituency within 10 days. Opposition parties, including the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting against the revision.
(With inputs from PTI and media reports)