Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Friday opposed a plea before a Delhi court that sought a first information report against her on allegations that she used forged documents to get her name included in the voter rolls of 1980, three years before she obtained Indian citizenship, Bar and Bench reported.

The complaint is “wholly misconceived, frivolous, politically motivated, and an abuse of the process of law,” Gandhi told the court .

Gandhi was responding to a revision plea filed by Vikas Tripathi before the Rouse Avenue Court, challenging a magisterial court order that had refused to direct the registration of an FIR.

The matter came up for hearing on Friday before Special Judge Vishal Gogne, who noted Gandhi’s response and listed the case for arguments on February 21.

Tripathi has alleged that Gandhi’s name was added as a voter of the New Delhi constituency in January 1980, when she was not an Indian citizen. The name was deleted from the electoral rolls in 1982 after the Election Commission found irregularities.

He alleged that the deletion was due to “false documents”.

Her name was re-entered in 1983, the year she obtained citizenship, Tripathi said in his complaint.

In September, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasiya of Rouse Avenue Courts dismissed the plea seeking an FIR in the matter.

Back then, Chaurasiya said matters pertaining to citizenship fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Union government, while decisions on inclusion in voter rolls rest with the Election Commission.

Tripathi subsequently filed a revision petition before the sessions court, following which notice was issued to Gandhi on December 9.

In her reply, Gandhi argued that the complaint was based on speculative assumptions, media reports and “imaginary applications”, without any foundational documents being produced, Bar and Bench reported.

She said the complainant had made serious allegations recklessly, relying on “his own imagination or opinion or unwarranted presumption” and had not placed on record copies of any alleged voter registration applications, citizenship-related documents or forged records, nor shown any attempt to lawfully obtain them.

Gandhi also questioned how the complainant could claim direct knowledge of a supposed public outcry in 1982 that allegedly led to her name being deleted from the electoral roll, more than four decades after the events in question.

She stated that the allegations related to events from 1980 to 1983 and revived controversies from decades ago, making it impossible to produce reliable evidence and amounting to malicious prosecution.

The Congress leader further contended that matters relating to citizenship fall exclusively within the domain of the Union government, while disputes concerning electoral rolls lie solely with the Election Commission, Live Law reported.