Vijayapura: An inquiry into Congress leader Abdul Mushrif’s allegation that Vijayapura MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal had produced fake death certificates of eight members of the minority community has found the certificates to be genuine. However, the probe has also established that the deceased persons’ names were not on the electoral roll, contrary to Yatnal’s claim.Yatnal had submitted the death certificates of eight persons to the District Election Officer (DEO), claiming that their names continued to figure in the electoral roll during the special intensive revision (SIR) and seeking their deletion. Mushrif subsequently accused the MLA of producing fake certificates.Following the controversy, DC K S Anand, who is also the DEO, ordered an inquiry and directed the Vijayapura City Municipal Corporation (VCMC) commissioner to verify the certificates.According to sources, the commissioner checked the birth and death registers and confirmed that the certificates were genuine and that all eight persons named in them had died. Their names, however, were not on the electoral roll. The confusion arose because eight other persons with identical names, who were alive, figured on the list.In its response to Yatnal’s charge, the VCMC reportedly clarified that the names of the deceased persons mentioned in his letter were not on the electoral roll. The names appearing on the list belonged to different, living individuals who shared the same names as the deceased.The commissioner also pointed out that Yatnal’s request could not be considered as his letter was not accompanied by Form 7, the prescribed application for deletion of names from the electoral roll.The inquiry has thus found no basis for the claims that the death certificates were fake or that the deceased persons’ names continued to figure on the electoral roll, undermining the allegations made by both Yatnal and Mushrif.
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