FIR against Mehbooba, Chhapra under scanner

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has ordered filing of an FIR against Peoples’ Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti for "intimidation" of voters at a polling booth on April 26 and said that the final report on allegations of poll violence in Chhapra is yet to be prepared.
Speaking after a meeting of the full commission on Tuesday, its spokesperson A N Jha also said that the poll body will soon take a view on the 22 stampede deaths that followed the distribution of saris in Lucknow, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s constituency.The poll panel had received the BJP’s reply to its notice in this regard.
On Chhapra, Jha said the report by the two-member team which visited the constituency is being prepared. Asked how soon the EC’s decision would be known, Jha said, "No date or time has been decided."
EC sources point out that K J Rao, one of the members of the commission’s team to Bihar, has left for Anantnag which is going to the polls on Wednesday. The Chhapra report would be finalised only when he returns.
However, EC sources point out that countermanding is an extreme step and the commission would like to get an overall picture before taking such a decision. Therefore, a team from Delhi was sent.
So far, Election Commission sources say, evidence suggests that booth capturing and violence did not take place all across the constituency.
"The final decision is still a day or two away but the EC would most likely refrain from taking the extreme step. The commission could order widespread repolling," a source said. Meanwhile, the EC, Jha said, has removed the district magistrate and superintendent of police of Banka for violation of the model code. DM Rashid Ahmed Khand and SP K M Lal are alleged to have shared the dais with chief minister Rabri Devi during her election meeting.
Union minister of state for external affairs Digvijay Singh, contesting from Banka, had lodged a complaint with the EC, which was found true by the commission. As for the FIR against Mehbooba Mufti, Jha said the poll panel had ordered the Jammu and Kashmir government to file it under section 171(c) of the IPC.
The National Conference had alleged that Mehbooba — who is contesting from the Anantnag constituency which goes to the polls on Wednesday — had intimidated voters.
At one point, she had even allegedly removed the veil of a woman voter at the polling booth at Burn Hall School. The NC had also alleged misuse of powers by Mehbooba in moving around several booths along with her security guards.
The NC had threatened to boycott the remaining phases of the polls in the state if the EC failed to take note of its complaint. The state election office then conducted an inquiry and submitted its report to the EC.
Jha also said that the commission was keeping a close watch on the clashes between Congress and BJP workers in the Chhindwara parliamentary constituency of Madhya Pradesh, which goes to the polls on Wednesday. Congress leader Kamal Nath is in direct contest with Union minister Prahlad Patel of the BJP in Chhindwara.
Reports of the clashes in Harrai and Chhindi villages of the constituency, in which a number of people were injured, were received on Tuesday morning.