Raid on Tahsildar office: DVAC entered strong room violating MCC, says BJP leader
Speaking to DT Next, Karate Thiagarajan said the raid was done without the prior nod of ECI. He claimed it raises doubts among the candidates and their agents.
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CHENNAI: The BJP state unit secretary Karate R Thiagarajan has filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo over the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) wing’s alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct by raiding the premises of a Special Tahsildar, whose office was one of the strong rooms of Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency.
According to Karate R Thiagarajan, the BJP election-in-charge for Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency, the DVAC sleuths had raided the Special Tahsildar Saroja’s office, which is also functioning as an election office and a strong room in LB Road, Adyar without obtaining Election Commission of India’s prior permission and without the presence of 41 candidates of Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency. The BJP leader alleged that the DVAC sleuths did not follow the Model Code of Conduct and suspected that there might be a conspiracy in the raid as the concerned office is an election office which holds the documents and details of the candidates contesting from Chennai South LS constituency.
Speaking to DT Next, Karate Thiagarajan said the raid was done without the prior nod of ECI. He claimed it raises doubts among the candidates and their agents. “Although it was a follow-up raid of Saroja’s earlier arrest, the DVAC must have obtained prior permission from ECI and more so because the details of the 41 candidates who contested in this Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency were in the office of the raided official. The raid should have been conducted in the presence of ECI authorities and candidates,” he told DT Next.
The BJP leader said he immediately filed an oral complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo and Chennai District Election Officer J Radhakrishnan over the phone regarding the alleged violation of the code, once he came to know of it.
The DVAC sleuths had arrested the special tahsildar Saroja on May 14 allegedly for demanding Rs 1 crore to execute a Madras High Court order on encroachment eviction. DVAC took action based on a complaint by Pon Thangavel, a social activist, who was part of a movement to evict people from encroached government lands in his locality.