Belagavi court grants anticipatory bail to BJP's Ravi Patil accused of filing fake Form 7s to delete Muslim voters

A Belagavi court has granted anticipatory bail to a BJP leader Dr Ravi Patil, who is accused of submitting fictitious Form 7 applications allegedly seeking deletion of voters' names from electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

Form 7 is used for seeking deletion of a name from the electoral roll.

Additional District and Sessions Court Judge Gangadhara KN on October 3 held,

“Mere submission of Form No.7, the election authority will not automatically act; they will do their own enquiry and verification."

According to the complaint, Meerasab Sanadi, a block agent of a political party, approached the Market Police alleging that the accused had submitted around 198 Form 7 applications to the authorities involved in the SIR of electoral rolls.

The complaint alleged that the applications were fictitious and were intended to delete the names of voters belonging to the Muslim community, even though the voters continued to reside at the addresses mentioned in the electoral rolls.

Patil denied involvement in the alleged offences and contended that he had been unnecessarily implicated in the case. He also submitted that his arrest would cause serious damage to his reputation and standing in society.

The Court noted that if the accused had submitted fabricated Form 7 applications, the documents were already available with the booth level officer attached to the election section of the Belagavi Mahanagara Palike.

It further observed that the case was primarily based on documentary evidence and that the election authorities would independently conduct an enquiry and verification before taking any action on the applications.

“It is the election authority [which] has to dispute on the particular document and not the persons belonging to particular party,” the Court observed.

The Court also took note of the fact that the alleged incident occurred on September 26, while the complaint was lodged only on October 1.

It held that Patil had made out a prima facie case for grant of anticipatory bail and noted that although the offences invoked against Patil were non-bailable, none of them was punishable with death or imprisonment for life.

Accordingly, the Court directed that Patil be released in the event of his arrest, subject to execution of a ₹50,000 bail bond with one surety for the like sum.

Advocate RG Patil appeared for Ravi Patil.

[Read order]