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.
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, according to sources. 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. Their names, however, were not on 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.