No connection with 'voter ID card' flat, says 'reported' tenant

The reported tenant of the Bengaluru flat where nearly 1000 voter identity cards were seized has denied any connection with the accommodation.

Nearly 9,746 voter ID cards, five laptops and one printer were seized from a flat located in the Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency of Bengaluru on Tuesday, one of the 223 constituencies where voting will be held on May 12.

Rangaraju, the man who according to flat owner Manjula Nanjamari is the tenant of the falt, told ANI on Thursday that "I have no connection with the flat. I stay with my family in a different flat in the same building. I'm not involved in this case."

He said a fact needs to be realized that if he wanted to do 'such illegal acts' then would he be doing from the building where he lives.

"When my family is staying in the same apartment if I wanted to do these kinds of things will I do in my apartment or in the same building?" he asked.

Rangaraju said he belongs to a middle-class family and does not have that much money that he could afford two apartments on rent.

Flat owner Nanjamari on Wednesday said that the property was not rented by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporter Rakesh, as alleged by the Congress.

"The tenants are Rekha and Rangaraju, this is fake news that Rakesh is the tenant," Nanjamari had told ANI.

The BJP says that the scam was the brainchild of the Congress, which points out that the flat owner is a BJP leader, a charge BJP denies.

The BJP delegation comprising of Union Ministers Smriti Irani, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, JP Nadda, Dharmendra Pradhan, S.S. Ahluwalia, and BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi on Wednesday met the Election Commission in New Delhi and demanded to countermand election to Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency in Karnataka over the seizure of around 10000 voter identity cards.