Kochi: The Kerala High Court has granted police protection to the messenger who was supposed to serve the summons issued by the court on four voters of Manjeswaram constituency. The summons was not given as the messenger informed the court that there were threats when he attempted to serve it. The court while considering a petition filed by BJP leader K. Surendran had issued the summons to 259 voters who were made witnesses in the case. The court was supposed to record the statements of 10 persons on Thursday.
The messenger informed the court that five persons received the summons while five were not in the locality and two addresses were fake. The persons who received the summons should appear before the court on June 16. Mr Surendran had lost to Indian Union Muslim League candidate P.B. Abdul Razak in Manjeswaram by a margin of 89 votes. He challenged the election victory of Mr Razak and filed a petition seeking to declare the election as null and void. The declaration of the results had been materially affected by the improper reception of void votes, he alleged.
According to the petition, many persons who were included in the voters’ list were not alive on the date of the polling. However, votes were polled in their names in the polling booths. "It was reliably understood that those votes were falsely cast by impersonation at the behest of the UDF candidate and were3 recorded in his favour," Mr Surendran had argued. Some of the voters included in the list were not in India or not in Kerala on the polling date. But their votes were cast. A total of 291 votes polled were bogus, he alleged.
