Midnight 'Flying Squad' could be Fake, says CEO
The ‘flying squad’ that had woken up residents of a locality in West Tambaram on Sunday midnight to verify their voter ID and ration cards could be a fake one, Chief Electoral office Praveen Kumar said on Wednesday.
Speaking to Express, the Chief Electoral Officer said that he came to know of the incident through media and had requested the Kancheepuram collector to submit a report as no flying squad had been entrusted with the task of verifying voters in houses so far.
He said that it could be the handiwork of some imposters with ulterior motives.
“We will have to wait for the official report. The idea behind the flying squads is to seize unaccounted cash suspected to have been brought into a constituency to bribe the voters,” he said.
Elaborating on the measures taken to ensure such incidents were not repeated, the CEO said, “We have issued ID cards to the squad members bearing their details. In case of suspicion, the public can call the Control Room and verify the details the official conducting the raid. .”
On Sunday night, a group of men in a police vehicle had woken up the residents of Khader Bhai I, II, II, IV and V cross streets localities between midnight and 1.30 am. Some residents protested the midnight raids.