Poll code violation cases do not have logical end

Hyderabad: Cases booked for violations of the election code do not come to any conclusion. They are either dropped if they are against legislators who are elected to the House, or the maximum punishment is imposition of a fine.

In the 2014 election, 9,867 cases were booked for violation of the code, out of which 7,285 cases were for distributing money and liquor and the accused were from all parties since bribing voters in this manner is almost an accepted part of elections in India.

Around 2 lakh litres of liquor, Rs 34.38 crore cash were seized and 198 cases of gold seizure were booked. Nothing more has been heard about these seizures. The department concerned has not been held to account about the liquor, and the money has either been pocketed or swallowed by the government, it is alleged. The most number of such cases in 2014 were registered in Hyderabad. In Goshmahal police limits,Rs 89 lakh were seized by the cops on different dates and two cases were booked. The money was sent to the IT department, but that is all that happened.

In another case, Rs 89.87 lakh were seized from an RTC bus at Bollarum. During checks, police found that Vijayaramana Rao, candidate of the TD  was carrying cash from Karimnagar. He said he was going to hand it over to the TD office as it was party funds. A non-cognizable case was booked and the case is still pending.  

Money that is seized by the police is handed over to the income tax department in the city or mandal revenue officers in districts. The IT department checks if the cash is accountable or illegal (black or white).

“For booking a large number of cases the CEO - Election Commission and the commissioner of police have been praised, but then, after the election results everybody forgets about the cases. There has been very little progress in the disposal of cases booked under section 171 IPC.

Further, 4,974 cases were booked involving two lakh litres of liquor and there is no information available about this,” said M. Padmanabha Reddy, general secretary, Forum for Good Governance.

In Andhra Pradesh, action has been dropped against nine legislators who were elected to power.

For the election year 2018, since the day the election code for the Assembly elections in TS came into force, the police have seized around Rs 31.41 crore in cash, and liquor worth Rs 1 crore.

Six unlicenced arms were seized, 7,411 licenced arms deposited, 8,622 PD cases were booked, 43,101 bindover cases were filed and 3,765 warrants were issued.

These are the number of cases booked during the general elections in 2014

n In Andhra Pradesh, action has been dropped against nine legislators who were elected to power.