Stalin case: Judicial magistrate will probe

Judicial Magistrate has been asked to investigate the allegations of poll violations by M.K. Stalin, son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi and register case, State Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said today.

Asked about the directive by the Election Commission to register a case against Stalin, after he was captured on video allegedly distributing money to people in the Tirumangalam constituency, which is going for polls on January 9, Gupta told media here that the Tirumangalam judicial magistrate had been asked to investigate and register case.

Reacting to reports about rumours that video cameras would record the casting of votes, Gupta said videographers were being deployed only to monitor poll process and not to record to which candidate the voters cast their votes.

'It is against the law to videograph any person voting', he said adding that video graphers have been pressed into service only to monitor the polling and record any untoward incident.

"It will not affect the secrecy of voting in any way. No one need to fear about it..or even hesitate. It is against law to videograph any person voting so it is not possible to record when a person is voting," he said.

Gupta said after the deployment of Central forces in the constituency the number of poll-related complaints had come down and tensions eased. Observers would be deployed in all polling stations on polling day and they would report to poll observers in case of problems, he said.

The Electronic Voting Machines had been deployed in the presence of Election Observer and agents of candidates to ensure transparency. The machines would be thoroughly checked and a mock poll also would be held in the presence of the agents, he said.

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