Kannur: The Kerala Police have registered cases against nine activists of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and one CPM worker for casting bogus votes in Kannur district. The action against IUML malpractice follows a complaint lodged by a polling booth agent of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) at the Mayyil police station.
Bogus votes were cast in the name of 28 expatriates at booth number 166 in Pamburuthi in the district, the complaint stated.
The case was registered against League workers Abdul Salam, Marshad, Muhammed Aslam, K P Uniyas, K Muhammed Anas, Abdul Salam, KP Sadiq, Shamal and Mubsheer. Some are accused of casting bogus votes twice.
It has been found that officials, including the presiding officer, facilitated the fraudulent act at the Pamburuthi booth. A case would also be registered against three election officers at the booth number 166 in Pamburuthi, it was learnt.
Meanwhile, the police have also filed a case against CPM worker A K Sayooj for casting bogus votes at Dharmadam in Kannur.
Manorama News had first reported that bogus votes were cast at a booth in Dharmadam, the legislative assembly constituency of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The Election Commission confirmed the fraudulent voting by checking the collector’s report and the CCTV visuals at the AUP Mappila School at Pamburuthi and booth number 52 at Dharmadam.
On Friday, the Chief Election Officer Teeka Ram Meena confirmed that 13 bogus votes were cast at a couple of polling booths in Kannur Lok Sabha constituency during the recent polls.
As reported earlier, the United Democratic Front (UDF) has filed an official complaint with district collector Mir Mohammed Ali, alleging that the CPM workers had cast 199 bogus votes in the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency. Apart from these 199 bogus votes, DCC president Satheesan Pacheni had said the other day that they had details of another set of 40 people casting bogus vote.
Political mudslinging is going on in Kerala as more and more reports of bogus voting during the Lok Sabha poll emerges. The BJP-led NDA has slammed both the UDF and the LDF for resorting to malpractices for winning the election.
Congress seeks judicial probe
Meanwhile, Mullappally Ramachandan, the president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), demanded a judicial probe into the issue and said that the CEO should impartially review the complaints submitted.
The KPCC has set up a new committee led by KC Joseph in each district to check bogus voting and a consolidated report would be submitted before the election commission, Mullappally said in Kozhikode on Saturday.
It was reported earlier that plans to deal with bogus voting would be taken up by the state leadership of the Congress, when the KPCC convenes in Thiruvananthapuram on May 14.
Congress had earlier alleged bogus voting on a huge scale occurred in Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency too during the Lok Sabha polls held in the state on April 23. There were also complaints of booth-level poll officers removing the names of actual voters from the electoral list.
Vadakara UDF candidate K Muraeedharan had also come down heavily on DGP Loknath Behera for the misuse of postal ballots of police officers.