EVERYBODY in the neighbourhood knew that Khaliq Abdul had gone to Pakistan with his neighbour to visit a sick relative. Mr Abdul was the first Asian to move into his terraced street in Foleshill 42 years ago and had welcomed generations of new families there since.

His stamped passport, seen by The Times, shows that he arrived at Islamabad airport last November and left on May 15. Sajawal Mohammad, who lives next door, accompanied him to Pakistan and is still there.

But on May 4, polling station staff recorded that the two men had turned up at a community centre and were issued ballot papers. That night Foleshill, once a Labour bastion, fell to a Conservative businessman, Altaf Adalat, 43, by six votes. A recount confirmed the result.

It was one of two gains that delivered the city into Tory hands for the first time since 1979.

The battle had been marred by fears of cheating. Chris Hinde, the returning officer, called in the police during the campaign after discovering 70 suspicious-looking applications for postal votes.

There were fears that religious tensions would be exploited. The Labour councillor, Malkiat Singh Auluck, was a Sikh, while the Conservative was the son of a prominent Muslim. After the Tory victory, Muslim elders approached Mr Auluck and said that they had heard that voters’ identities had been stolen.

His solicitor, Philip Townshend, a Labour councillor, sent private investigators to visit the suspicious addresses and take statements. They knocked on the door of Shamim Hussain and her husband, Mukhtar, just back from Pakistan. The young couple’s stamped passports showed they had left in February and returned on May 14.

The “marked register”, which shows the names of all who vote, reveals that somebody turned up and claimed their ballot papers. An electoral petition calling for the result to be declared void because of “corrupt practice” gives names and addresses of ten voters said to have been out of the country, but whose votes were recorded.

There is no suggestion in the petition that the Conservative candidate conspired with others, did anything wrong or instructed others to do so. Costs are being sought from the council.

The petition requests that the ten bogus votes be found and removed from the tally to provide a correct result, or for a rerun of the election.

Mr Adalat said: “We won a fair election. One had to win. Why cry about it?”

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