Madurai rural district police have registered a case against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) candidate for Thirupparankundram by-election, P. Saravanan, on charges of bribing voters.
The Austinpatti police registered the case against Dr. Saravanan and another unnamed person based on a Tamil news channel report under Section 171-E (bribery), 171-H (illegal payments in connection with an election) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant).
“The case was registered based on the video footage of Polimer TV news report,” Madurai Superintendent of Police, Vijayendra Bidari, told
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Stating that the police have identified the recipients of money through the “edited” video footage, Mr. Bidari said that both the suspects who had reportedly distributed money and the recipients had been summoned for questioning. The incident is said to have happened on November 5.
“Initially, it was reported that the incident of a DMK man giving money to women happened in Nilaiyur under Madurai rural police limits. However, during investigation, we found that it occurred in Om Sakthi Nagar in Madurai city police limits. After preliminary investigation, the case would be transferred to Madurai city police,” the SP said.
However, M. Moorthi, DMK’s district secretary and the MLA representing Madurai East, said that he was unaware of the case. He added that there was no chance of the party distributing money.
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Meanwhile, Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam candidate G. Dhanapandian has said that he had lodged a complaint against ruling partymen for “distributing money” as they made door-to-door visit armed with the voters’ list.