Bogus voting by policemen too; complaint: Investigation

Team Udayavani, May 1, 2019, 4:40 PM IST

Kasaragod: In the backdrop of allegations of widespread bogus voting having occurred within Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency during the Lok Sabha voting held her on April 23^rd, now there are allegations that the police who were appointed to prevent bogus voting have themselves cast bogus votes.

During the Lok Sabha elections, since it was not possible for the policemen on election duty to cast their votes, they were provided with the facility of postal ballots. However, there are allegations that at a few places, the covers containing the ballot papers with votes have been directly collected by a few officials of the police association, who have later broken open the cover, checked to whom the vote has been casted and in cases where the vote has been casted against their preferred candidate, they have manipulated the ballot papers, then replaced the ballot paper into the cover and then sent it.

Several Whatsapp message have been sent by a few police officials and now a few messages have fallen into the open. This is the main reason which has given rise to the allegation that some illegal activity has occurred in the votes casted by the policemen through postal ballots. But the allegation has been dismissed by the Chief Secretary of the police association.

He has clarified that there is no connection between the postal ballots and the police association. In the backdrop of the complaints on bogus voting by the police, several political parties have entered into the arena demanding a complete probe in this connection. Leader of the opposition Ramesh Chennittala, former home minister and Congress leader Tiruvanjur Radhakrishnan have demanded for a comprehensive investigation into the allegation.