Police on hot pursuit to arrest Sriramulu for assaulting Cong worker

Bangalore, May 15 (UNI) Police have spread a dragnet to arrest BJP candidate from Bellary Assembly seat Sriramulu, who had allegedly assaulted a Congress worker this morning in Bellary, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) M N Vidyashankar said.

Talking to mediapersons, he said following the incident, a criminal case had been registered against Sriramulu and serious efforts were being made by the police to arrest him. Clarifying that BJP leader Janardhana Reddy MLC was not arrested by the police and reports in this regard were false, Mr Vidyashankar said that EC had issued directions to arrest Mr Sreeramulu in this conncetion.

A police team even went to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state in search of Sreeramulu, but could not locate him.

Mr Vidyashankar said a search party raided the house of Anil Lad, the Congress candidate in Bellary, but no seizure was made.

Stating that the situation in Bellary was as peaceful as in other nine districts going to polls in the second phase tomorrow, Mr Vidyashankar said both state and Central security forces were deployed for ensuring free and fair polls in as many as 12,286 polling stations.

Replying to questions, Mr Vidyashankar said the Bellary police have seized an amount of Rs 8.8 lakh and arrested eight persons in this connection.

He said repolling was held today in one of the polling stations in Chamarajanagar district which went to polls on May ten, following malfunctioning of a EVM. About 77.08 per cent of polling was recorded.

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