New Delhi, 06 November (H.S.): The Rouse Avenue Court has permitted the complainant seeking the registration of an FIR against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over her alleged inclusion in the electoral rolls before acquiring Indian citizenship to submit additional documents.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vinod Joshi directed the complainant and his counsel, Vikas Tripathi, to file the additional documents by November 18. The court scheduled the next hearing for the same date. The matter is being heard afresh.

Earlier, on September 21, Special Judge Vishal Gogne had remanded the case to the magistrate’s court for reconsideration and directed it to pass a reasoned order.

Gogne had observed that the magistrate court’s earlier order was not adequately reasoned. Advocate Vikas Tripathi had challenged that order before the Sessions Court. Prior to this, on September 11, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia had dismissed the petition.

The petition alleged that Sonia Gandhi’s name had been included in the electoral rolls in 1980, although she became an Indian citizen only in 1983. It claimed that her name had been entered in the electoral roll for the New Delhi Assembly constituency in 1980, at a time when she had not yet acquired Indian citizenship. Her name was subsequently deleted from the electoral rolls in 1982 and added again in 1983.

According to the petition, Sonia Gandhi became an Indian citizen in 1983 and had applied for Indian citizenship in April that year. It further alleged that, since she acquired citizenship only in 1983, forged documents might have been submitted to secure her inclusion in the electoral rolls in 1980, which, the complainant argued, constituted a cognisable offence.

On this basis, the petitioner sought a court direction for the registration of an FIR against Sonia Gandhi. The petition also pointed out that the magistrate’s court had neither issued a notice to Sonia Gandhi nor sought a response from the Delhi Police in the matter.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar