PONDA/ BICHOLIM: In an otherwise peaceful polling at large across 40 constituencies on Monday, sporadic incidents of poll violence and unlawful incidents were reported from Nuvem, Navelim, Ponda and Bicholim.
At Nuvem constituency when the flying squad had to step in and disperse the crowd after supporter groups of two candidates – Congress candidate Aleixo Sequeira and Independent candidate Wilfred Babashan D’Sa – got into an argument. According to the flying squad, the dispute was over the movement of a polling agent near the polling station and that the issue was settled within a few minutes after their intervention.The second incident was a verbal clash between the supporters of Margao’s BJP candidate Manohar Babu Ajgaonkar and Congress’s Margao MLA Digambar Kamat in Moti Dongor. Here, Ajgaonkar was the one who alleged that Kamat was moving around with a large number of supporters, an allegation that was denied and Ajgaonkar castigated the police for not taking any action.
However, the biggest and most dramatic incident was in Navelim constituency where the main grouse was about police not taking action. The issue took place at Rumdamol Housing Board, when four opposing candidates got together to demand action against the family of TMC’s Navelim candidate Valanka Alemao.
AAP’s Pratima Coutinho, NCP’s Rehan Muzawar, Congress’s Avertano Furtado and Independent Digvijit Chauhan alleged that money was being distributed from a house in the area to locals. Coutinho called the Returning Officer while the remaining three contestants all said they had personally seen the act. While Coutinho and others entered the house and claimed that the TMC candidate’s sisters were hiding in a bathroom, the police and flying squad that entered later did not find anyone hiding anywhere in the room.
The owners of the house reacted strongly to the act of strangers entering their house and alleged that their mother was pushed and could have had a head injury had she had to fall. They vowed to file a police complaint and demanded that proof be shown against the allegations and said the two Alemao sisters had come for lunch and left. Coutinho said that this is a mockery of elections given the attitude of authorities while Chauhan criticised the police and authorities for failing to take action and employing delaying tactics. Muzawar slammed such alleged practices during an election especially in Navelim constituency while Furtado said women police officials should have gone to the house immediately.Speaking to media persons later in the day, Valanka strongly denied all the allegations and lambasted her opponents for targeting her family. She said if they had anything to say they should say it to the candidate and not make such baseless allegations.
There was another incident earlier on Monday morning between the supporters of TMC’s Alemao and NCP’s Muzawar outside a polling booth at Anjuman School in Rumdamol. Muzawar later denied that he was involved in the incident and Chauhan corroborated what Muzawar was saying and added that he had video proof of how the incident played out. However, the police intervened quickly and the crowd was dispersed.
Ponda Police on Monday registered an offence against Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) Ponda candidate Ketan Bhatikar for allegedly assaulting a woman and youth.Based on a complaint filed by one Suvarna Kampal, aged 38 years and Vijaykumar Pal, both residents of
Nagzar-Curti, Ponda, the police registered an offence against Bhatikar for allegedly assaulting both the complainants under Section 323, 504 and 506(ii) of Indian Penal Code.
According to the complainants, when they were going to cast their vote at a primary school, Nagzari, Curti-Ponda, Bhatikar started arguing with them and falsely charged that the complainants have come to distribute money and further abused them with filthy language. Further, they stated that the accused person assaulted them by holding them by their collars and slapped them on their faces and threatened them with dire consequences. The woman said that she was pushed from behind by the accused while the youth said Bhatikar caused injury on his neck by holding the collar.
However Bhatikar denied the allegations and said, “It is a conspiracy against me by rivals to defame me. Let police investigate the matter.”
Meanwhile, Ponda Police arrested one 30-year-old Geetesh from Savoi Verem for video recording while casting his vote at a polling station.
The accused is under arrest and his mobile phone is seized.In Bicholim, some unknown culprits on Sunday midnight set ablaze car owned by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader Vallabh Salkar.
However, major tragedy was avoided due to swift action by Fire and Emergency personnel, who doused of the fire before catching the other vehicles parked in the close vicinity.
Salkar lodged a complaint at Bicholim Police Station and police are investigating the case. CCTV footage from the nearby area will be taken into consideration.
Salkar said that he is in the politics for last 30 years but has not witnessed such an incident till date. He said, “I will not keep quite unless I find out who is the culprit. With this incidence, it has come to my notice that how dangerous is the outside strength (outside people).”
