A man charged with committing electoral offences has pleaded guilty and convicted as charged by the Suva Magistrates Court.
Rajnil Pratap Sobha pleaded guilty to all the three counts of False Declaration on an Application for Voter Registration, False Declaration on an Application for Replacement of Electronic Voter Registration Card and Applying to be Registered as a Voter on More Than One Occasion.
Sobha knowingly made false declarations by stating that his name was Rajneel Rajiv Malhotra and used a false date of birth when submitting his application to the Fijian Elections Office Officials in July 2016 in Ba.
For the second count, in June 2017 in Nadi, Sobha provided the same false information to obtain a replacement card.
For the third count, Sobha applied to be registered as a voter under the name of Rajnil Pratap Sobha, in Suva, whilst already having been registered as Rajneel Rajiv Malhotra in October 2017.
He was charged by FICAC in June this year under the Electoral Act and the Electoral (Registration of Voters) Act.
FICAC State Counsel, Laite Bokini read out the Summary of Facts before Resident Magistrate Liyanage Wickrama-sekara in today’s court sitting. He was then convicted.
The matter has been adjourned to 22nd of this month for the filing of sentencing and mitigation submissions.
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