About 25 foreign citizens had been detained or arrested for allegedly voting in the recent Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry using identity documents obtained allegedly fraudulently, The Hindu reported.

While most of those detained were found to have voted in Chennai, two foreign citizens allegedly did so in Puducherry.

Under Election Commission rules, overseas electors must remain Indian citizens and must not have acquired citizenship of another country. Non-Resident Indians are allowed to register as voters under the Representation of the People Act but are required to produce an original Indian passport at polling stations.

The foreign passport holders were stopped by the immigration authorities at airports in Chennai and Madurai after officials saw marks of indelible ink on their fingers during departure checks.

The operation to crackdown had begun last week, The Hindu reported.

Cases have been registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Representation of the People Act and other laws.

Chennai Additional Police Commissioner A Radhika told The Times of India that first information reports were filed based on complaints from the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office in Chennai.

The persons accused in the matter have been released on bail, The Times of India quoted the police as saying.

Investigators were quoted as saying that most of the persons who had been detained were Sri Lankan citizens. The others were British, Canadian and Indonesian citizens.

The persons arrived in India shortly after the election was announced and allegedly stayed back after polling, possibly waiting for the indelible ink marks to fade before attempting to leave India, the police alleged.

The polls in Puducherry were held on April 9 and in Tamil Nadu on April 23.

“We conducted discreet inquiries and alerted the authorities who detained 25 to 30 persons as they prepared to board flights,” The Hindu quoted an unidentified senior official as saying.

One man of Indian origin who had become a British citizen in 2015 was allegedly found to have voted in the Pattukottai Assembly constituency. He was detained at the Chennai airport while attempting to board a flight to London.

Some of the arrested Sri Lankan citizens were identified as Ranjini (59), Sarfudeen (68), Nilanthi (44), Jeyanthan (40), Charlie Balachandran (48), Chakravarthy Logapriya (50) and Sunitha Chakravarthy (48), PTI reported.

Others arrested included Ayyadurai (53), a British citizen, Tittin Mariatti (47) from Indonesia, and Jitthendranath (38) from Canada.

A report has been submitted to the Election Commission, an unidentified official told The Hindu.

Investigators are also examining records of other foreign citizens who arrived in India before polling day and have not yet left the country.

The cases have emerged even as the Election Commission conducted a special revision of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union Territories including Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

More than 74 lakh names were removed from Tamil Nadu’s electoral rolls during the exercise. The final voter list published in February showed that the state had 5.6 crore electors.

In Puducherry, the number of voters fell by more than 77,300 after the revision. The total electorate declined from more than 10.2 lakh before the exercise to 9.4 lakh in the final rolls, marking a net reduction of 7.5%.

In Tamil Nadu, actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, on its electoral debut, emerged as the single-largest party with 108 seats, falling short of the majority mark of 118 in the 234-member Assembly.

The TVK formed a coalition government with the support of the Congress, the Left parties, the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and the Indian Union Muslim League.

In Puducherry, the All India NR Congress-led National Democratic Alliance won 18 of the 30 seats.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar