Election officers facing criminal cases due to Ministers affidavit approach HC

HYDERABAD: Election officers of the Mahbubnagar Assembly constituency for the 2018 polls on Friday approached the Telangana High Court with a request to quash the criminal cases lodged against them in relation to the election affidavit against minister V. Srinivas Goud.

The police, under court order, have booked IAS officers Ronald Rose and S. Venkat Rao, revenue divisional officers J. Srinivas and A. Padmashree, and two other officers under charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal intent, public servant providing false information for bribery, forgery, public servant framing incorrect record with intent to save contestant, cheating and misleading the court, among others.

The police filed the cases based on the directions of the special court to try criminal cases against public representatives in Hyderabad. The judge had directed the Mahbubnagar police to register the case against the officials and submit an inquiry report while dealing with a private complaint by Mahbubnagar voter Ch. Raghavendra Raju.

Raju, in his complaint submitted to the court, said that Goud’s election affidavit was tampered with by filing another set of papers in which he had not disclosed the property details and bank accounts of his spouse.

Raju alleged that the returning officers were in connivance with Goud in tampering with the affidavit and requested the court to lodge criminal cases against them. The judge allowed his prayer.

Requesting that the cases against them be quashed, the officers approached the High Court through a lunch motion petition. As per the roster, the cases were placed before the bench headed by Justice K. Lakshman, who, was recused from hearing the case and directed the registry to place the petitions before the Chief Justice.