Cases have been registered under Section 171(B) of the IPC (bribery) against 11 candidates of various political parties for accepting money from corporate houses, apparently to bribe voters during elections.
The FIRs have been registered on the directives of the Election Commission by the returning officers.
The Election Commission took a suo moto notice of a sting operation carried out by a private news channel. The prospective candidates were caught on a hidden camera saying that they would spend between `1 crore and `3 crore on polls and the amount includes expense in the name of dummy candidates, liquor and other goodies for the electorate.
The maximum expenditure allowed in an Assembly poll is only around `16 lakhs.
The candidates against whom FIRs have been registered are Kiran Pal Kashyap of SP from Thana Bhawan seat in Shamli, Ayub Jang from Kairana, Peace Party candidate Salim Ansari and SP candidate Virendra Singh Chauhan from Shamli, Congress candidates Sayed Jaki and Sukhlal from Pilibhit Sadar and Puranpur seats respectively, BSP nominee Nahid Hasan from Gangoh seat in Saharanpur, Narendra Sisodia from Ghaziabad BJP’s Harpal Singh from Dhanaura seat in Jyotiba Phule Nagar, RLD candidate Shahanawaz Rana from Noorpur seat in Bijnore and JD(U) candidate Jagat Pal from Kundarki in Moradabad.
Election Commission sources said on Sunday that since the incident amounted to taking bribe, the persons, if convicted by court, might have to spend up to one year in jail or pay a fine.
Besides, they might face disqualification for continuing as MLAs if elected, and also be barred from contesting any poll in future.
EC has already directed all poll officials in UP to deal firmly with any incident of bribe taken or offered by the candidates.