ECI Report Reveals Goons Used For Cash Distribution in 2016 Polls

Police cases have been registered in 90 percent of the instances, the report says.

691 complaints were registered this time related to envelopes without any names on them with cash inside being distributed among voters. (Photo: Reuters)

The Election Commission of India received a confidential report prepared by the public election department, which revealed that milk men, newspaper boys and goondas were used by politicians to distribute cash for votes in the recently held Assembly polls.

Though party men are usually used for distributing cash-for-votes in large numbers, This time, 691 complaints related to envelopes without any names on them with cash inside being distributed among voters, besides 22 complaints of newspaper boys giving cash have been received.

In case of newspaper boys and milkmen, 34 complaints were received, of which 29 cases have been accepted for further action. There were also cases in which goondas were involved in cash distribution. Of the 36 complaints received in this category, 29 were booked with the police registering FIRs. The network put in place by the EC received 5,825 complaints of party men distributing cash for votes, of which 5,463 were accepted.

To a query on other modes of freebie distribution, the official clarified that in 146 cases people with votes have accepted gifts and another 34 accepted tokens from politicians.