Hyderabad: A token system and a modus operandi resembling hawala transactions have been adopted by political parties to distribute money to voters who attended political meetings and rallies in the last few days. A few incidents were repo-rted to the police, but several such instances have also gone unreported.
In an incident at Medipally, under Rachakonda police commissionerate limits on Tuesday, the police apprehended people of various parties who had given tokens to the public to later distribute money by collecting them.
Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat on Wednesday said, “We have found that the people were given tokens while attending the meeting and the same was collected after the meeting. People who returned the tokens were given '300 each. It has also been found that similar people have attended meetings of different political parties.”
A total of 26 Assembly constituencies are present in Rachakonda (13) and Cyberabad (13) commissionerates. They have 13 Assembly constituencies each, where about 25,000 police personnel from the Central Armed Special Forces, including those from the Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force and Sashastra Seema Bal, would be deployed at the polling stations.
Rachakonda Police Commissioner Bhagwat said, “Till Wednesday, 31 cases of violation of the model code of conduct, six cases of poll violence and four under SC &ST Act have been booked. As many as 300 people belonging to other places, who were staying at a function hall in Hayathnagar were taken into custody and produced before a magistrate. Special striking forces and regional striking forces are being deployed at the critical polling stations and the police are using about 59,000 cameras to monitor the public on the election day.”
Cyberabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar said, “About 39 cases of violation of MCC were booked against various persons. About 152 critical polling stations have been identified among the 2,867 stations. Police forces from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Odisha have been deployed for increased security.”
The commissioners of Rachakonda and Cyberabad have appealed to the people to complain about violations by political leaders, threatening and luring of any political party or candidate through WhatsApp numbers ‘9490617444’ and ‘9490617111’.
The police have also said carrying mobiles to polling stations is prohibited.
