“Someone already voted for me”: Mumbra man alleges impersonation at booth

In Mumbai, voters including Aarif Khan reported being denied the chance to vote after being told someone had already cast a ballot in their name.

MUMBAI: When 32-year-old Aarif Rizwan Khan, a resident of Narayan Nagar in Mumbra, reached his polling booth on Thursday, he was in for a shock, election staff allegedly told him someone had already voted in his name.

“Someone already voted for me”: Mumbra man alleges impersonation at booth

Khan’s name was listed in Panel 31 at Booth No 13, Room No 2, at Angels’ Paradise School in Mumbra. After he objected, voting at the booth was halted for over 15 minutes as officials checked records of the person who had allegedly cast the vote.

“The staff at the booth wanted me to leave without casting my vote, but I was firm in my demand. How could someone else cast a vote in my name? There was also no CCTV inside the booth to capture the image of the person who voted in my name,” Khan said.

After his Aadhaar card, passport and voter ID were re-verified, Khan was finally allowed to vote at around 4:15 pm, through a ballot paper. The returning officer present at the booth said, “The voter who allegedly cast the vote in Aarif’s name had produced an Aadhaar card for verification and was allowed to vote.”

Similar complaints were reported from Virar East. Farida Mohammad Shaikh said she was told at the NGV School polling station that a vote had already been cast in her name. “I repeatedly told them that I had not voted but they kept telling me that I had. I then met an acquaintance who recognised me and vouched for me. The polling officer then asked me to wait but even after waiting for two hours I was not called so I came home,” she said.

Another voter, Abdul Shaikh, who reached the same school around 1 pm, also claimed his vote had already been recorded. “This is completely unfair. We poor people have one thing that cannot be snatched, our vote, that too is getting robbed now,” he said.