Congress leader held on fraud charges

SNS, 19 June 2014: Police today arrested Ms Meera Tamang, the pradhan of the Maniram gram panchayat, and Mr Sunil Saibya, the Congress leader of the GP in Naxalbari on charges of producing false documents, including a fake electoral photo identity card (EPIC), to enroll a man’s name in the voters’ list.

The applicant submitted a photo copy of an EPIC, which was issued from Birbhum district.

Darjeeling police arrested both of them after thorough investigations, following a complaint lodged by the Mr Kingshuk Maity, Naxalbari Block Development Officer.

Mr Maity lodged an FIR against the applicant with the Naxalbari police station after examining the photo copy of the EPIC, which was fake.

Mr Maity said: “We received an application for enrollment of the name in the voters’ list during roll revision ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

We examined the serial number of the voter card and detected that the card was issued in the name of another man there. Then we decided to lodge an FIR against the applicant.”

“I initially suspected it was a fake EPIC.

“When I asked them, they did not give a proper answer and left the office. They did not return,”said Mr Maity.

Sources said the police came to know that Ms Tamang issued a residential certificate to the applicant, who wanted to enroll his name in the voters’ list.

Notably, Ms Tamang was elected on a Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha ticket and reportedly joined the Trinamul Congress recently.