TENKASI: Special Strike Force personnel of the State police had to chip in to secure ballot boxes early on Thursday after a group of villagers prevented polling officials from taking back three polled ballot boxes.
Sources said though DIG (Tirunelveli Range) Praveen Kumar Abhinapu and SP (Tenkasi) R Krishnakumar tried to reach a consensus with the villagers, the talks didn’t yield results till Wednesday midnight. “Then, the Special Strike Force and local police forcefully entered the booth and secured the ballot boxes around 1.15 am on Thursday,” they added.
The protest was the result of a clash between supporters of D Shanmugathai of Naranapuram and M Selvi of A Maruthappapuram (both candidates for the presidential post of Naranapuram panchayat). Following the clash, villagers from A Maruthappapuram held six booth agents of Shanmugathai hostage and Naranapuram villagers apprehended three agents of Selvi.
“The police rescued the booth agents, though the Naranapuram agents got injured and were sent to hospital. Irked by this, Naranapuram villagers intensified their protest,” said a police official.
Speaking to TNIE, Krishnakumar said the Alangulam police registered two cases against the villagers. “One was registered against the A Maruthappapuram villagers under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for beating booth agents of Naranapuram. The other was against Naranapuram villagers for damaging a car of people from Maruthappapuram. Police personnel have been deployed to avoid untoward incidents,” he added.
An official of the Rural Development Department said they are preparing to lodge a complaint against villagers from Naranapuram for stopping the polling staff from doing their duty. “The CCTV footage is being analysed,” he added.