Telangana High Court asks report on BJP’s Rs 8-crore cash withdrawal before polls

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court directed the Election Commission on Monday to give information about action taken on the complaint made regarding the withdrawal of Rs 8 crore by the BJP on April 8 this year.

The court also sought a report on the BJP allegedly circulating the voters’ list in Secunderabad constituency along with a pamphlet, requesting voters to vote for the BJP along with voter slips, this being against the election rules.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy was dealing with a petition filed by G. Pavan Kumar Goud, election agent of TRS candidate Talasani Sai Kiran Yadav.

The petitioner sought directions to the Election Commission to disqualify G. Kishan Reddy, the BJP candidate of the Secunderabad Parliamentary constituency for violating the election rules and influencing voters. The bench directed EC’s standing counsel Avinash Desai to inform the court about the action initiated by the commission on the issue, and posted the matter to April 18 for further hearing.

Counsel for the petitioner, M.A.K. Mukheed, submitted that the EC had not taken any steps on the petitioner’s representation to take action against the BJP state president and G. Kishan Reddy for violation of the Representation of People’s Act.

He said that the TS had withdrawn Rs 8 crore from the party’s account in Indian Bank at Narayanguda.

“As per the Income-Tax and bank guidelines, more than Rs 2 lakh cannot be withdrawn by an individual or organisation, but it is learned from reliable sources that bank officials colluded with the BJP,’ the counsel submitted.

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