Web portal managing director, staff arrested

‘They were offering freebies to people for answering poll-related questions’

The South-East division police have arrested the managing director of a web portal and his three employees for allegedly luring people by offering to recharge their mobile phones in return to replies to poll-related questions.

The accused were identified as Kishore Kumar and his staff Dravid M., Murthy and Shashi Kumar from Andhra Pradesh.

According to the police, the accused used to distribute pamphlets to the general public containing the names of the candidates of the Assembly constituency in the South-East division, seeking questions related to the elections.

The accused, they said, used to recharge mobile phones of those who replied to their questions through calls or SMS, with Rs. 100. Based on a tip-off, a team of police arrested the accused, while they were distributing pamphlets at Belathuru.

The police have confiscated a car and pamphlets from them. Preliminary enquiries revealed that the accused were conducting an independent pre-poll survey.

“As this amounts to violation of code of conduct, we have booked a case against them,” the police said.