New Delhi [India], September 11 : The Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi on Thursday dismissed a criminal complaint filed against former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, which had accused her of forging documents to get enrolled in the voters' list before acquiring Indian citizenship.
The order was passed by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Vaibhav Chaurasiya, who had reserved the verdict yesterday after hearing detailed arguments from the complainant's counsel, advocate Vikas Tripathi, and senior lawyers assisting him.
The complaint alleged that Gandhi's name was included in the New Delhi parliamentary constituency voter list in 1980-81, even though she was not an Indian citizen at that time. According to the complainant, Gandhi, originally an Italian citizen, became an Indian national only on April 30, 1983, under Section 5 of the Citizenship Act.
It was further alleged that her name was deleted from the electoral rolls in 1982 but reappeared in 1983, shortly before she formally became an Indian citizen. The complaint claimed this sequence raised doubts about the authenticity of documents submitted to the Election Commission.
Appearing for the complainant, senior advocates Pavan Narang and Anil Soni, along with advocates Neeraj and Himanshu Sethi, argued that Gandhi's voter enrollment prior to April 1983 was irregular and potentially fraudulent. They maintained that "a public authority was misled, and a fraud appears to have been committed."
The complaint had also relied on a 1985 Allahabad High Court ruling in Rakesh Singh vs Sonia Gandhi, which recorded that Gandhi became an Indian citizen only on April 30, 1983. The plea sought registration of an FIR and a full police investigation into the alleged offences.
After considering the submissions, ACJM Chaurasiya dismissed the complaint, holding that no case was made out to warrant any probe made in the complaint against Sonia Gandhi. The court found the allegations insufficient to proceed with the allegations, claiming forgery or fraud had been committed in securing voter enrollment.