Thousands of printed special intensive revision (SIR) forms were allegedly found at a photocopy shop in Navi Mumbai’s Kharghar area on Friday, triggering a clash between Shiv Sena (UBT) and BJP activists and raising questions over the sanctity of the voter list revision exercise.
The incident occurred after Sena (UBT) workers confronted a man they claimed was a BJP youth wing office-bearer while he was allegedly getting SIR forms photocopied at the shop, police said.
Local police rushed to the spot and took the alleged BJP office-bearer into custody. Thousands of printed SIR forms were seized from the premises and taken to the police station.
Sena (UBT) workers, however, alleged that the detained BJP youth leader managed to flee the Kharghar police station shortly after being brought in for questioning.
The police are probing the incident, and no case has been registered so far, a Navi Mumbai police officer said.
Local Sena (UBT) leader Balesh Bhojne demanded a thorough investigation into how such a large volume of official forms came into private hands and why they were being photocopied in bulk.
NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar said the incident had raised serious questions over the transparency of the voter list revision exercise. He alleged that the SIR exercise was being used by the BJP to lay the groundwork for victories in future elections.
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