An offer by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate on the campaign trail, inviting voters to a biryani feast landed him in trouble as a complaint was lodged against him for trying to lure voters. A police complaint was filed against BJP MLA ST Somashekar for violating the election Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The Minister was caught on video asking the public to eat biryani that was being distributed during his campaign.
Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) state legal unit president AP Ranganath filed a complaint with the police, and a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Somashekar on Wednesday evening for violating the MCC. During his campaign on April 9 near Kabbalamma temple in Doddipalaya at Kengeri for the upcoming Karnataka elections, ST Somashekar, the BJP candidate for Yeshwanthpur constituency was seen encouraging the people to eat the biryani that was being provided at the event.
The Kaggalipura police in Ramanagara filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer on April 10. The FIR was filed under section 171E and section 171B (offense of bribery), column 155/23 (wrongful gain) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), section 123(1) (bribery) of The Representation of the People Act. The FIR also stated that upon investigation of the submitted video footage and audio clip, it was confirmed that ST Somashekar indeed said biryani was being served to everyone present to hear the speech.
Meanwhile, a case was filed today against Srinivasa Reddy, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate for BTM layout for bringing 14 vehicles, while he was filing his nomination papers. The candidate also brought flags with party symbols, t-shirts and caps to the office of the returning officer. Kuber Naik, head of the flying squad, seized the objects and filed an FIR against Reddy at the Adugodi police station.
In other instances of corruption, Rs 18 lakh was recovered at Basavanagudi near Patalamma check post at around 11 pm on April 13. In another seizure, Rs 36.20 lakh was found in a car near JP Nagar 3rd phase and seized as the driver could not explain or provide records for the money. Devanahalli police also seized 500 fans worth Rs 5 lakh from a goods vehicle coming from Andhra Pradesh to Bangalore as the driver could not provide any documents for the fans.