Sikh leader in New Zealand charged with forgery

A Sikh leader in New Zealand was Monday charged with forging election documents in a bid to win a local body election three years ago.

Daljit Singh, a former Labour Party candidate, who was running for the Otara-Papatoetoe local board in Auckland Council in 2010, is on trial at the high court in Auckland on 20 charges of using a forged document, Radio New Zealand reported.

Seven other men, who helped Daljit Singh, are also on trial for the same charges, but on fewer counts.

Daljit Singh, a real estate agent, however, pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutor Robin McCoubrey told the court that Daljit Singh falsely changed a large number of people's addresses on the Electoral Enrollment Centre's website so that they came under his constituency, the Otara-Papatoetoe board.

According to the report, most of the people's addresses he changed were Sikhs with the surname Singh.

The prosecutor also told the court that the centre had contacted police when they found anomalies in the addresses "of people being registered in one electorate and that forms were being downloaded from just a couple of computers".

The trial is set for six weeks and will see 200 witnesses testifying.