RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has been asked by the Election Commission of India to surrender his "apparently fake" Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) by 16th August, saying it was a crime to forge and use a bogus government document.
According to reports, a letter has been written to the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate Patna (Sadar) cum Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for Digha Assembly regarding this.
The official had previously contacted the former Deputy Chief Minister the week before, requesting him to 'submit for examination' the electoral identity card which he asserted he possessed, despite it allegedly being 'not officially issued'.
In the most recent correspondence, the Electoral Registration Officer stated that an examination of voter records spanning multiple years had resulted in the determination that the Election Commission had never produced the voter card bearing the EPIC number referenced by Yadav.
"It appears that the aforementioned EPIC card is fraudulent. Creating and utilising a counterfeit government document constitutes an offence under law. You are hereby requested once more to hand over your seemingly fraudulent EPIC card by August 16 before 5 pm," the correspondence stated.
During a media briefing on 2nd August, Yadav had stated that when his EPIC number was searched, it returned the result 'no records found' in the provisional electoral rolls compiled during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
Following the District Administration in Patna's rejection of this assertion, Yadav contended that his EPIC number had been 'altered'. Subsequently, Yadav acknowledged possessing the voter identification card with the EPIC number cited by officials, whilst attempting to hold them accountable for issuing duplicate EPIC cards in his name.
