The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that there had been complaints of money being distributed in a police jeep by some police personnel.
Apearing for ECI senior counsel G. Rajagopalan, said this during the course of his arguments on the petitions filed by state fisheries minister and DMK Thiruvottiyur assembly constituency candidate K.P.P. Samy and Thillai Natarajan.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam reserved orders after hearing both sides.
Submitting a file containing information received from Central government departments, to the bench, Mr Rajagopalan said the ECI had established in sufficient number of cases it was strictly following the rules. The material received from the Central government departments was very shocking. Even money was being distributed in a police vehicle. The ECI also listed where the money was drawn, taken and in which house it was located.
“We have listed where the money was drawn, taken and in which house money was kept. We have seized 1/10th of the material of what we got information. Whatever information we have received up to March 27 we are submitting in the report. We have not mentioned the names of the officials (who collected details) as they should not be targeted,” the counsel said.
“The money distribution (to voters) was done with meticulous planning. We are not able to deal with (a case of) such magnitude and are trying to deal with it. So far 2900 cases have been registered. We are going to take action against the police officers who distributed money. This cannot be anonymous information. Some names (of police officials) are really shocking,” he said.
Meanwhile, state chief secretary S. Malathi filed an affidavit stating the state government would continue to provide necessary administrative support to the ECI for the conduct of free and fair elections to the state assembly.
The unilateral order of the ECI based on their perception about the individual officers should never form part of the service record of the officer.