A candidate in the fray for sarpanch post in Chenjerla village of Manakondur mandal and three others have been booked for allegedly printing fake ‘model ballot papers’ and circulating them in a bid to mislead the voters, police said. Based on a complaint filed by the Nodal Officer concerned, the Manakondur police have registered a case against Gaddi Renuka, the sarpanch candidate, Gaddi Ganesh, Aditya and the owner of a Karimnagar-based private printing press on charges of violation of Model Code of Conduct for the Gram Panchayat elections. According to sources, the accused deliberately tried to mislead the voters by printing bogus ‘model ballot papers’ with a wrong serial number of a candidate in the fray and circulating the fake papers among a section of villagers with an ulterior motive. Meanwhile, the Choppadandi police have seized liquor bottles worth around ₹49,920 from a motorcycle-borne duo identified as Kanakaraju and Madhukar during a vehicle check at Arnakonda village on Monday night. Kanakaraju’s wife is contesting for the sarpanch post, police said. The duo has been booked and further investigation is under way. In a separate incident, an election flying squad caught two persons, including Jada Anjaiah, a candidate for ward number 2 in Cherlabuthkur gram panchayat in Karimnagar rural mandal, while allegedly distributing liquor bottles to voters in the poll-bound village on Monday night. A case has been booked against them for violating the model code of conduct. The police have beefed up security arrangements in the villages going to the gram panchayat polls in the first phase on December 11.
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