Madurai
The incident occurred inside a house at Ambalam allegedly after attempting to bribe voters in favour of the Congress candidate. After sensing that huge sums of money were kept inside the house of one Mariappan, considered as a violation of model code of conduct, some of the local residents vociferously objected and asked to stop distribution of money to voters. The infuriated people claimed that many of the locality had already decided to boycott the bypoll since their demands were not met by the state government. Further, they argued that bribing voters, who remain steadfast in their stand, would tantamount them to voting. At one stage, those held inside the house with bundles of Rs 2,000 currency notes were thrashed by theangered people. Four cadre came under the attack.
Tirunelveli Collector and District Election Officer Shilp Prabhakar Satish when contacted said cash of Rs 2.78 lakh had been seized from the house. The flying squad team deputed at the locality had no powers to enter the house. However, a team of officials from Income Tax is investigating into the issue, the Collector said. Moolakaraipatti police are yet to file a case in connection with seizure of the cash.
In yet another incident, the flying squad team led by Selvakumar seized cash of Rs 39,000 from four, allegedly belonging to AIADMK, while distributing it to voters at Kattarkulam near Kalakad. They were fromAruppukottai.
Besides, five unknown persons dropped cash of Rs 50,000 and ran away on noticing the flying squad at Padmaneri. Meanwhile, Sankara Subramanian, independent candidate in the fray, moved Madurai High Court on Thursday and filed petition seeking postponement of bypoll to Nanguneri. The petitioner claimed that money was distributed to voters by the AIADMK cadre. Besides, the petitioner also sought the Election Commission to take necessary action to expel AIADMK MLAs and MPs camping in the constituency. The court accepted to hear the petition soon, sources said.
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