Polling Largely Peaceful In Hyderabad: Police

Barring a few incidents of sporadic violence, the polling in 15 Assembly constituencies and 2 Parliamentary constituencies of Hyderabad and Secunderabad concluded peacefully on Wednesday.

The polling was held in 3,446 polling stations from 7am to 6pm, and a little over 53% of polling was reported in the city.

The polling went off peacefully, except for some sporadic incidents reported in the Goshamahal, Amberpet and Yakutpura Assembly constituencies.

According to Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma, the city police had made elaborate bandobust arrangements by deploying a force of 18,000 covering all sensitive and hyper-sensitive polling stations and areas to ensure free and fair polling, and also to prevent the occurrence of any untoward incidents.

The Commissioner said that contesting candidates Mumtaz Ahmed Khan of MIM and Majeedullah Khan Farhat of MBT were taken into preventive custody, as they were moving in the Yakuthpura Assembly constituency along with their followers violating the Model Code of Conduct.

Apart from the above, 2 cases were registered against Vikram Goud, the son of the contesting candidate from Goshamahal Mukesh Goud of the Congress, and V Hanumantha Rao, the contesting candidate from Amberpet of the Congress, for assaulting rival party workers.

Besides the above cases, 4 other cases were reported. While one case was registered against Venkat Rao, the contesting candidate of the YSRCP from Secunderabad Cantonment, for distributing pamphlets, another case was registered against Mohammed Amer of Gowlipura for casting a bogus vote at polling booth No. 116, Crescent High School, Deewan Devdi.

A 3rd case was registered against Mujeedullah Khan Farhat for allegedly obstructing the voters at Chacha Auto Garage in Bhavaninagar, and a 4th case was registered against Gajjela Kantham, the contesting candidate of the Congress from Secunderabad Cantonment, for obstructing the police from discharging their duties.

"Overall the polling went off peacefully, due to constant vigil and the good work done by the security forces. We thank the people of Hyderabad for maintaining peace and calm during the process," the Commissioner said. (INN)