SIAA polling: Vishal Reddy alleges physical assault, sustains injuries

Chennai: Polling for various posts to South Indian Artistes' Association today turned murky with alleged allegations of physical assault and bogus voting being made by one of the sides. Actor Vishal Reddy, leading the campaign against incumbent SIAA President R Sarath Kumar, was allegedly heckled and pushed and sustained injuries but insisted that the "election will not stop".

"Whoever attacks, election will not stop. We are actors, we are against violence. Not just me, some women were also targeted," an emotional Vishal told reporters but declined to say who had attacked him. He suspected that his alleged attacker could be an outsider. He sought additional police protection for women and said that his team will not rest till the elections were over and votes counted.

Top Tamil comedian Vadivelu alleged that Vishal was forcefully pushed and heckled, recreating the scene that happened inside the polling booth before the actor stormed out with his supporters. "There are efforts to stop polling by resorting to violence but that is not going to happen. Police should strengthen security as a women actor was abused and attacked," he alleged.

Meanwhile, police said after some confusion was noticed, a police team was sent to handle the situation. Comedienne, 'Kovai' Sarala, alleged that bogus voting was happening as an actor had discovered that his vote had already been cast when he came to exercise his franchise. However, actor Ramki, a supporter of Sarath Kumar, denied any wrongdoing and said polling was proceeding smoothly.

He said "there might be some emotions," with so many actors and their fans around but denied there was any attack. Meanwhile, polling is continuing at brisk pace.

Actor Vishal comes out of Film body election venue in Chennai as he was allegedly manhandled inside by unknown ppl. pic.twitter.com/c5PALkCbWN

— ANI (@ANI_news) October 18, 2015

(Photo: ANI/ Twitter)