Pune: Day before elections, hundreds of blank ballot papers found in SP Mandali office

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Last November, the Charity Commissioner had dismissed the board of trustees in view of the alleged irregularities. Since an administrator was appointed, elections had to be conducted within six months. For the first time in institution’s history, in-person voting was being conducted in Pune, Mumbai, Solapur, for which candidates from three different panels were contesting.

On Tuesday, some candidates from Parivartan panel visited the SP mandali office in the morning and noticed that the former chairman, Abhay Dadhe, was in his cabin with his fellow candidates from opposition. “Our candidates saw blank ballot papers lying on the table of his cabin . Hence, we alerted the police and election committee members to investigate foul play,” said Suryakant Pathak, spokesperson of Parivartan panel.

Two election committee members — former IAS officer Padmakar Gaikwad and Badrinath Murthy — arrived on spot with police and initially found seven blank ballot papers from two drawers.

Dadhe, who was then confronted by media about blank ballot papers, said, “This year, there is a lot of ambiguity in the election process and people were unsure of how to go about it. Hence, many reposed their trust in me and sent me their ballot papers that I would have forwarded to the election committee,” he said.
Asked about his presence in office after suspension of the current management, Dadhe said, he was called by the office staff to sign cheques related to salaries, payments, sales tax and so on, which has been allowed by the Charity Commissioner too.

However, after the discovery of blank ballot papers, Dadhe insisted no one besides administrator appointed by the Charity Commissioner should open the remaining drawers while Murthy argued that members of election committee have the right to search all documents related to election. As the pressure mounted and members of political groups also started arriving on scene, Jadhav arrived and held discussions with concerned parties until 7pm, after which it was decided to break open the remaining drawers. Chaos erupted as at least 20 bundles of blank ballot papers were found and sealed. Dadhe quickly exited the office while Jadhav told reporters, “Of total 3,700 voters, 504 were postal ballots which we sent through speed post. Now, we will track the speed post details of whether the ballots were received by voters and how these ballot papers reached the SP Mandali office.”

“We have to verify if ballot papers are authentic. But yes, none of the postal ballots were to be sent here and all should have directly been received by election committee. It was made very clear,” said Jadhav.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I) Tushar Doshi said, “Our team went to the premises after we got inputs about some issues in the election. The appropriate authority in this case is the Charity Commissioner’s office.”

Later, in the night, Dadhe was arrested after an offence was registered at Vishrambag police station confirmed DCP Doshi.An offence was also registered against two persons, SPM Mandali trustees Anant Mate and Jayant Shaligram.