BENGALURU: The Election Commission deferred polling in Rajarajeshwarinagar assembly constituency to May 28 with counting scheduled on May 31.
The decision follows the seizure of nearly 10,000 Electoral Photo ID Cards along with handbills featuring sitting Congress MLA and candidate N Munirathna on May 8 from a flat in Jalahalli in the constituency. Investigation revealed that “the concerned party or candidate had used a firm to carry out a detailed survey of voters which included photograph of the house, voters along with details of caste, gender, contact number and their passport-size photographs.”
“Taking cognizance of the gravity of the circumstance which would have prevented freeand-fair elections, EC has taken this decision to defer the RR Nagar assembly polls,” chief electoral officer Sanjiv Kumar said here on Friday.
The EC, in its order, said apart from Sanjiv Kumar and police commissioner T Suneel Kumar, observers visited the spot and gave their report. After the initial seizure, both Congress and BJP had made allegations. Upon receiving the memoranda from both parties, the EC deputed a deputy election commissioner from New Delhi to examine the matter further.
DEC Findings Of the 9,564 EPICs found on May 8, the DEC has been able to verify only 801 cards so far – all genuine – given that each of them need to be verified individually, a time-consuming process. The DEC also reported that in 30 such cases, field verification revealed that cards were collected from voters by some “unknown persons”, however, “they were reluctant to disclose the reasons.”
Further, statements recorded by police reveal the EPICs were taken a month before in exchange for water cans and promise of cookers, etc at a later stage.
The DEC notes that the available material, including EPICs, and survey reports (household) suggest a “design to induce the voters in a particular manner at the level of parties.” On whether Munirathna will be arrested, Kumar said: “It is a serious case and police investigating the case will decide.”
Other Violations The EC also noted a series of other election-related violations in the constituency which were also considered before taking the decision to defer the elections.
In his report, the DEC acknowledged a number of cases lodged against various people accused in the case, including the “candidate(s)”.
“In one such case, a consignment with 5,018 T-shirts (with name and photo of the candidate) in ten plastic bags and 23,393 half pants in 503 cotton boxes seized on May 6. Preliminary inquiry revealed that the consignment was loaded from Tirupur for Tumakur, outskirts of Bengaluru. It was also found that the half pants were in favour of one Reliance Retail Limited...the investigation is still on,” the ECI quotes the DEC report.
The candidate in question is N Munirathna, and the RO concerned has already issued a notice to Congress.
Invoke Cheating Charge: Court A Bengaluru magistrate court on Friday directed Jalahalli police to include more sections of the Indian Penal Code like cheating and forgery in the case where nearly 10,000 EPICs were found from a Jalahalli flat. Rajarajeshwarinagari MLA N Muniratna is the 14th accused in the case.
The 24th additional chief metropolitan magistrate gave the direction on hearing a private complaint lodged by N Rakesh, a BJP worker. Rakesh sought for inclusion of Sections 420 (cheating ), 465 , 468 and 471 of IPC ( all relating to forgery). He contended that police have been going ‘soft’ on Muniratna.
Jalahalli police, meanwhile, arrested two men and took them into their custody for questioning. Police identified them as Chinna Tambi and Chinna Dorai. “Flat owner Manjula Nanjamuri was granted anticipatory bail after she surrenderred before a local court on Friday,” police said.
Meanwhile, Samarpana, a citybased cultural outfit, has moved a PIL in the high court for a direction to countermand or withhold the results of RR Nagar. - TimesOfIndia