Hyderabad: After Deccan Chronicle’s report on the people complaining of police high-handedness while seizing cash and valuables under the pretext of mandatory pre-poll checks, the Election Commission of India (ECI) pulled up the state police and sought a detailed report from them on the allegations.
The Election Commission took up the report ‘Seizure gets close, personal’ published on October 20.
Elsewhere, the ECI during a meeting held with election officials on Monday, instructed them to return all the seized cash to the respondents after proper verification.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar asked Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj to return seized cash from genuine respondents after proper verification. If the seized cash was not related to elections, the district grievance committees were directed to hand over the cash immediately.
Separately, additional commissioner (law & order), Hyderabad, Vikram Singh Mann during a training session on Monday instructed the static surveillance teams to inform the income-tax department of any information about cash being stashed in homes.
“They should not enter the house and action will be taken against those who violate this election rule,” he said. N. Prakash Reddy, model code of conduct nodal officer for Hyderabad district, said that static surveillance teams should treat the public politely during the inspections.
It was also learnt that upon the ECI’s directions, CCTV cameras had been installed at all checkposts that were set up ahead of the elections and were connected to the control room from where commission could monitor the activities on real time.Deccan Chronicle had earlier reported the people complaining about how the police, particularly those in plain clothes, were harassing them by citing the model code of conduct and confiscating cash, gold and valuables.
The ECI sought to know how the seizures are affected, the procedures followed and further disposal of the grievances in the process. The police department submitted a detailed report on the EC’s queries and issued guidelines to the field staff.“We have conducted training for staff at various levels on the procedures to be followed during the MCC. Further, the teams involved in the seizures are being constantly monitored,” an official told Deccan Chronicle.
