'Electoral fraud' takes on a yummy avatar

Officials cracking down on electoral fraud had a rather yummy encounter.

Instead of the usual stuff — cash and liquor — the officials were stumped to find seven vessels of pulao and curd rice at a convention centre where a meeting of the Congress party’s Jayanagar workers was underway on Thursday. The food, along with other ready-to-eat snacks, was meant for the consumption of the Congress workers.

But the officials raided the venue following a tip-off and determined that distributing the food was tantamount to violating the poll code. Officials said the Congress party workers had taken permission only to hold a meeting and hadn’t mentioned that there was going to be a feast for the participants or the food items they would be served with.

Chetan Hanbal, Model Code of Conduct (MCC) Squad Officer, later filed a complaint at the jurisdictional Wilson Garden police which registered an FIR under IPC Section 171E (punishment for bribery) against Sunil Kumar, a member of the Jayanagar Block Congress who had organised the event.

Police and election commission officials later destroyed the seized items with the court’s permission.