Court moved over poll malpractices in Karwan

Hyderabad: Demanding re-poll, the candidates of Karwan Assembly constituency urged that the Election Commission should respond to the incidents of booth capturing, which made a mockery of democracy and resulted in violation of democratic rights. A writ petition was filed in High Court on Monday against the malpractices.

Dr Lubna Sarwath, one of the contesting candidates representing Socialist Party (India), pointed out that even after 24 hours of complaining about violation, no notice was sent to the incumbent. She alleged that the former MLA, Kausar Mohiuddin, stopped the presiding officer from checking veiled women and threatened that no rules should be cited. One of the henchmen also threatened him of consequences, she said. “Even after reporting about the issue to the police and election officials, no protection was offered to me. If the ‘webcast’ was working at the time, all the proceedings must have been recorded in the cameras. Doesn’t Old City come under the purview of city Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar’s jurisdiction? If yes, the CEO of Telangana and police need to take action and establish that law doesn’t bend for some and doesn’t turn monstrous for some,” she said. There is no level-playing field,” she lamented.

Sarwath urged the civil society to pressure the CP and CEO to take action. She also asked the AIMIM party chief Asaduddin Owaisi to suspend Kausar from his party for the serious violation of threatening officer on duty and woman co-candidate. “I also urge CEO of Telangana, who has apologised to the public for missing names of the voters in the lists, to state the issue in an affidavit and submit it to the chief justice where the case is still ongoing,” she said.

Earlier, other candidates of Karwan Assembly constituency, including Maha Kutami and MBT, alleged malpractices, rigging, booth capturing, police negligence, biased attitude, manhandling by MIM and BJP workers. They demanded re-polling in Karwan under the army supervision. Senior High Court advocate Osman Shaheed on Sunday said, "Non-functioning and malfunctioning EVMs were intentionally used in the area in order to curb fair elections." Congress candidate Osman Hajiri said, "The constituency has 93 booths, which were peaceful until Thursday, but booth capturing took place early on Friday. Several violations, including voting by underage candidates, impersonation of votes and bogus voting are nothing but a mockery of democracy and democratic rights."

Mohammed Layeeq of MBT, Vittal of BLF, Rakesh of New Indian Party and T Virender Singh of ASP also slammed the negligence of police and said that the officers at these polling booths violated the court orders. They claimed, "The BJP and the MIM had a match fixing at these constituencies, and they forced the polling officers and other party candidates out of these booths."