Hyderabad Police warns Rohingyas against voting using fake ID cards
Issuing a warning against Rohingyas who turn up to vote at polling stations by fraudulently obtaining voter ID card, the Hyderabad Police on Thursday said such cases would lead to arrest. According to a civic official, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has identified 105 Rohingyas under its limits who have obtained Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) by enrolling themselves as voters by giving a false declaration stating that they are citizens of India.
"If any Rohingya is found to have obtained EPIC and turns up at the polling booth on December 7, we will arrest that person without any hesitation," Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar said.
A GHMC official had earlier said nearly 190 names of people suspected to be Rohingyas, the ethnic minority community in the northern Rakhine state of Myanmar, have figured in the voters list of Hyderabad and neighbouring districts and the officials were in the process of deleting them.
The community has been migrating to India as refugees since 2012 and the influx into Hyderabad started in 2013, a GHMC press release had stated.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is providing UNHCR ID cards to nearly 5,025 Rohingyas taking shelter in Hyderabad and its surrounding areas either in refugee camps or in private rented accommodations, it said.
"A copy of the list containing details of Rohingya voters has been made available with the officers. In case it is found that Rohingya, who is marked in the ASD (absent, shifted, dead) list, comes to vote then he will be immediately taken into custody and a case will be registered," the GHMC added.
Enrolling in voters list by submitting false information is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extended to one year, or with fine, or with both, as per Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (RP Act, 1950).
