The Election Commission of India (ECI) has taken the video that went viral about YCP’s Macherla MLA Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy entering a polling booth and destroying EVM himself and ordered severe action against him. Though severe accusations about his role in spreading violence in Macherla constituency were revealed, the AP police remained silent for the last 10 days.
Apart from the attacks on the ranks of the TDP, fear of defeat caused a ruckus where the Pinnelli brothers broke into the booths themselves and vandalized the EVMs. The CCTV footage of Pinnelli’s exploits has now gone viral on social media.
ECI has taken the destruction of EVMs seriously and issued key orders to the officials to take strict action against those responsible for this. The ECI ordered a criminal case against Pinnelli. To this extent, the CEC has given instructions to the state CEO and DGP.
ECI seems to be shocked that an MLA himself courageously went into a polling booth and resorted to such violence. He had reportedly resorted to such action after losing patience knowing that more and more people are voting for TDP in his constituency.
According to police sources, Pinnelli vandalized EVMs in seven other polling centers as well. Scenes related to this have been recorded on CCTV. A TDP agent was attacked with an axe outside the booth on the same day.
The ECI officials have reportedly have closely examined the scenes recorded on the web cameras regarding this incident. Palnadu district election officials have handed over the video footages of all such polling stations to the police to assist in the investigation of the EVM vandalism incident.
Police said that the MLA’s name has been included as an accused in the investigation. CEO Mukesh Kumar Meena also received instructions from the ECI in this regard.