TD bribes voters novelly

Hyderabad

April 22: The Telugu Desam has got caught for its novel methods of bribing voters, and depositing money directly into the bank accounts of women thrift groups. The TD workers were depositing Rs 40,000 into the account of each group to avoid distributing cash individually.

The police busted one such racket at Rajahmundry and arrested TD workers. “We found that the practice is followed widely in other places also,” the Chief Electoral Officer. Dr I.V. Subba Rao told mediapersons here on Wednesday.

The CEO directed banks to freeze the accounts of women thrift groups across the state for next two days. Neither deposits nor withdrawals will be allowed. He asked district collectors to inquire into depositing of money and trace the origin of the money with the help of police and Income-tax officials.

The CEO also directed district collectors to book cases of bribery and inducement against the TD workers who distributed application forms to open bank accounts, or gave dummy ATM cards to voters with an assurance that they can draw money from May 1 under the Cash Transfer Scheme. The cards in yellow colour had Rs 1,000, Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 printed on it.

Dr Subba Rao said the collectors of Anantapur and Kurnool had told the Election Commission that distribution of ATM cards was reported in several places in their districts.

“Collectors of other districts also informed me of high incidence of this practice by TD workers,” he said adding that cases would be booked under IPC Sections 171b (bribery) and 171c (inducement).