Arising out of an allegation about fraudulent deletion of voters belonging to the Muslim community during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Belagavi, Karnataka High Court has directed that no coercive steps be taken against BJP Leader Dr. Ravi Patil and his two supporters until October 13, 2026.

The single judge bench of Justice Venkatesh Naik T, sitting at Dharwad, while granting interim protection to the petitioners including the Patil, Prashanth Mundimani and Shankar Birappa Naik, recorded as below:

“…Learned HCGP seeks short accommodation to file statement of objections and latest investigation report in the next date of hearing. Issue emergent notice to respondent No.2[Complainant-Congress Worker]. List this matter on 13.10.2026. Till then, the respondent-police/IO shall not take any coercive steps against the petitioners…”.

Senior Advocate Aruna Shyam appeared for Dr Ravi Patil.

Earlier, a Sessions Court in Karnataka's Belagavi had granted anticipatory bail to the BJP leader in connection with an FIR alleging fraudulent deletion of voters belonging to the particular community.

The trial court had then noted that mere submission of Form No. 7 does not automatically trigger action, since electoral authorities conduct their own verification.

According to the police, a block agent of the opposing Congress party had alleged that the accused persons including the doctor, planning to erase the names of the voters belonging to the particular community, submitted approximately 198 fabricated Form No. 7 applications to the BLO attached to the election section of the Belagavi Mahanagar Palike.

According to the complaint, though the 198 voters sought to be deleted were originally residing in the earlier addresses shown in the list, the accused persons including the BJP functionary submitted Form 7 applications to deliberately exclude Muslim voters.

Based on the complaint, the SHO of Market Police Station, Belagavi, registered the case and issued a notice under Section 35(1) of the BNS.

The doctor-politician was charged for offences under Sections 318(4), 336(3), 336(4), 353, 61(2), 3(5), 3(7), 192 read with Section 190 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) .