Bengaluru, June 30: Congress leaders who were complaining EVM hacking for losing the recent assembly elections in Karnataka have now taken the matter to the High Court of Karnataka.
Former Congress MLA of Mangaluru South J.R.Lobo who was defeated by BJP's Vedavyas Kamath was the first to file a petition in Karnataka High Court on Thursday. He has alleged that EVMs have been tampered with in his constituency.
Following Lobo's petition, three more Congress leaders who have lost the recent assembly elections have also filed the petition in high court with the same allegation. They are M.K.Somashekar, who lost from Krishnaraja of Mysore , Vasu who lost Chamaraja in Mysore and B.A.Mohiuddin Bava , who was defeated in Mangaluru North. All the four constituencies have been won by BJP candidates.
C.S.Arun Machaiah who lost from Madikeri constituency as Congress candidate has also said that he will go to court with the same grievance. Many other defeated Congress MLAs have also alleged that they have lost due to EVM malfunctioning or tampering. They are also expected to file petition soon in the court.
Congress under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was confident of coming back to power in Karnataka. Many surveys had also suggested that there is no anti incumbency wave against Siddaramaiah government and Congress has a clear edge. But the election results came as a rude shock to ruling Congress where it slipped to 78 seats whereas BJP which was not expected to do very well jumped from 40 to 104 seats.
Following the results many prominent congress leaders started complaining about possible EVM tampering. For the first time , even AICC seriously discussed the issue. Now Congress leaders seem to have made up their mind to take the matter to court and fight against EVMs.
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Kochi (Kerala) (PTI): Police on Sunday arrested three directors of a firm accused of cheating hundreds of investors of over Rs 100 crore through a fake investment scheme linked to agricultural tourism here, officials said.
The accused were identified as Muraleedharan, Ashik Murali and Akhil Murali, all natives of Thrissur.
The arrests were made by the Kalamassery police in connection with a fraud involving ATCOS (Agri Tourism Cooperative Society), a firm headquartered at Pathadipalam here.
Police said the company had promised high returns by collecting investments from the public in the agricultural tourism sector, but allegedly cheated hundreds of people and fled with the money.
ATCOS was registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and operated 13 branches across various districts in Kerala, besides a branch in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, officials said.
When investors failed to receive their promised returns or the invested amount, complaints were filed with the police.
Officials said around 54 cases have been registered against the firm in 32 police stations across the state, including 29 cases at the Kalamassery police station alone.
Following instructions from Kochi City Police Commissioner K S Mahesh Kumar, a special investigation team was formed under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Shehensha and Thrikkakara ACP Manoj Kumar.
The team traced the accused to an apartment in Amala Nagar in Thrissur, where they had been hiding after secretly renting the flat, officials said.
The bank accounts of the accused have been frozen, and steps have been initiated to trace their assets, officials said.
Police also conducted a raid at the company’s office at Pathadipalam and seized several documents related to the case.
The accused were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kalamassery, which remanded them to judicial custody and sent them to Kakkanad jail.
Police said they would seek the custody of the accused for further interrogation as the investigation continues.
