Constable held for handing over service voters' postal ballots

A police constable was arrested here Monday for allegedly handing over postal ballot papers meant for service personnel to a local DMK leader, police said.

Constable Anthony Sekhar of Uvari police station allegedly collected Rs 7,500 from Jayaraj, a former local level DMK secretary, and gave the ballot papers which were to be sent to the postal vote polling centre in the city, they said.

Election flying squad headed by Dinesh Kumar found the ballot papers in the car of Jayaraj while checking it and based on his statement arrested the constable, police said.

A case under the Representation of People Act had been registered and action would be taken against Jayaraj also, they said adding further investigation was on to ascertain why the ballot papers were handed over the party man.

Police did not specify how many postal ballot papers were seized.

Ahead of the April 18 Lok Sabha elections and bypolls to assembly constituencies, police personnel who would be on poll duty have been casting their votes through the postal ballot in the past few days.