The police in Hyderabad on Friday arrested a young man in the city after he took a selfie while he was casting his vote in Rajendra Nagar during the Telangana Assembly election. The man, identified as Shiva Shankar, was picked up by the Rajendra Nagar police after officials at the polling booth in Upperpally filed an official complaint.
Speaking to PTI, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shamshabad Zone) N Prakash Reddy said, "Use of mobile phone within the polling station is prohibited. He took a selfie inside the polling station and has been taken into custody."
According to reports, the accused was booked under section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and later released on station bail.
Media reports also suggest that two more incidents of voters taking selfies inside polling stations took place at Uppal and Sanathnagar which were brought to the notice of Telangana’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajat Kumar.
Meanwhile, two voters died at polling booths in two different incidents. A 55-year-old man collapsed and died while waiting at a polling centre at Pydipalli village in Warangal Urban district.
In another incident, an elderly voter died of cardiac arrest at a polling booth in Gundrampalli village of Nalgonda district. Another voter died in a road accident while heading towards a polling booth in Khairatabad constituency in Hyderabad.
About 70 percent of 2.8 crore voters in the Telangana Assembly election on Friday as the polling ended on a peaceful note, barring minor incidents. This is the first full-fledged election in India's youngest state. In the 2014 elections held in united Andhra Pradesh, Telangana had registered a voter turnout of 68.9 percent.
Rajat Kumar said barring sporadic incidents, the polling was peaceful and smooth in all 32,815 polling stations across 31 districts. In some polling centres, the process started late due to technical glitches in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Voters at several places also complained that their names were missing from the voters' list.
There were 1,821 candidates, including Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his 14 cabinet colleagues.
IANS inputs