A beat officer was arrested on the ground of electoral offence at a panchayat election votes counting hall following a complaint filed by an AGP candidate contesting for Zila Parishad seat under Bhatirkupa-Boalipar ZPC in Hailakandi district of Assam.
The AGP, ZPC candidate Hilaluddin Borbhuiya lodged a complaint with the Returning Officer, Adil Khan on Wednesday on electoral malpractice committed by beat officer, Ramnathpur, Abul Hussain Mazumder during counting of votes. Mazumder engaged as counting supervisor at Hall No.10 allegedly committed a serious electoral offence by mixing up AGP votes with that of AIUDF resulting in grave anomaly.
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Ordering recounting on the basis of the complaint, Khan detected that there was quite a difference in the number of votes polled 69 and the one recorded by the forester as 113. It also came to light that two of his relatives were contesting as AIUDF candidates from the same ZPC, a self-declaration he should have made as per EC guidelines.
Returning Officer Khan ordered police for immediate arrest of the beat officer. Meanwhile, Sadar Police OC, Surajit Choudhury informed that a case has been registered against him under Representation of People’s Act, 1951 and various sections under IPC.
In yet another case, a dummy agent was arrested for posing as a representative of an AGP candidate but actually was found to be a representative of an independent candidate.
Husband of a contesting GPM candidate was handed over to the police as he entered the counting centre with his wife’s entry pass with his photo pasted on it. While the husband spent the night in a police lock up, his wife emerged winner. But her celebration turned out to be a subdued one as there was no one around – GPM candidate is not allowed a counting agent – and her husband behind bars.
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Nine persons were detained by a posse of security personnel guarding the Government VMHS School counting centre for trying to intrude through bogus entry pass. “The persons nabbed tried to infiltrate into the security cordon through scanned entry pass, ” said an Assam Police officer manning one of the entry points.