Police have seized an amount of Rs.22 lakh and caught six persons of various political parities while distributing money to voters in separate incidents here on Monday.
Two persons belonging to YSR Congress party were caught by a special team from Two Town Police station for distributing cash to voters. The arrested include I. Soma Sekhar Rao (55) and B. Ramu (27), and cash to the tune of Rs. 13.26 lakh was recovered from them.
According to Two Town Police station SHO T. Kalyani, the persons were caught opposite a lodge at Captain Rama Rao Junction in Alipuram in the early hours.
In another raid K. Ramana Patrudu (47) and Rajanna Raju (34), both YSRC activists, were caught by the same team when they were distributing money at a slum near Saibaba Street, Alipuram. The police recovered Rs. 60,000 from them.
Two Telugu Desam Party workers, P. Raja Reddy (28) and Ambati Mahesh (45) were nabbed by the Two Town Police while distributing money at a slum in Kobbarithota. An amount to the tune to Rs. 13,900 was seized from them. According Ms. Kalyani, all the persons have been taken into custody.
At Pendurthi, police seized Rs.4.33 lakh of unaccounted cash, at Padmanabham about Rs.3. lakh was seized and at One Town about Rs.30,000.
According to a senior officer from the Special Branch, distribution of cash for votes has been a perennial problem and it is difficult to stem the problem. “Every time we devise a method to curb it, the politicians find 10 ways out to distribute money to lure the voters,” he said.
According to him, in the present election, unlike in the earlier days, wherein prominent party workers would walk into areas with briefcases loaded with cash for distribution, they are using small time party workers as conduits. “They carry small amount of cash, but visit the area several times. When we tried to arrest such suspicious characters, they employed more number of conduits,” he said.
