Congress MLA from Bhopal Central Arif Masood and former State Minister and BJP leader Kamal Patel have been booked for allegedly taking their relatives inside polling booths while casting votes on May 7, the police said on Sunday.
The action came after complaints were lodged with the Election Commission. The two leaders or their kin had allegedly uploaded on social media, videos showing them inside the polling booths, police said.
Such complaints come to the district returning officers, who after going through those and finding them fit, forward them to the police for action, an EC official said on Sunday.
While Mr. Masood voted in the Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, Mr. Patel cast his ballot in the Betul seat in the third phase of general election on May 7.
The Shahjanabad Police have registered a case against Mr. Masood under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 188 (deliberate disobedience of an order that is duly promulgated by a public servant empowered by law to do so) and other counts, said Assistant Commissioner of Police Nitin Upadhyay.
He said the use of mobile phones in a prescribed area of the polling booth was forbidden. Besides, more than one person is not allowed to enter the area where the vote is cast, the official said.
In Harda district, the City Kotwali Police registered a case against BJP’s former MLA Patel for a similar violation, police inspector A.R. Khan said. Besides IPC Section 188, he has also been booked under the Representation of the People Act, police said.
A video showing him with his grandson inside a polling station has come to light, the official said.
