Similar incidents were reported from Sambhal which voted in the third phase on May 7.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Policemen in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi parliamentary constituency “prevented” Muslims from casting votes and allegedly used pressure tactics to deter them from approaching polling booths.
Videos of several incidents of police highhandedness have surfaced on social media platforms.
Amethi, the prestigious Lok Sabha constituency once represented by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi several times, went to the polls in the fifth round of the seven-phase general elections on Monday.
Viral videos show Muslim voters being chased away by policemen at Tiloi at polling booth 309, which has a dense Muslim population.
Muslim voters alleged they were lathi-charged by the police personnel at the polling booth when they arrived to cast their vote. Muslim women were ‘pressured’ into not casting their votes.
Several people were injured, many grievously, in the “unwarranted police action,” Ataurrehman, a local activist, said.
Similar incidents were reported from Sambhal constituency which voted in the third round on May 7. Here too police allegedly used lathi-charge on Muslim voters and prevented them from casting their votes.
Video from Sambhal district surfaced on social media showing police personnel assaulting and chasing away Muslims who had come to cast their voters. The incident occurred in booth numbers 181 to 184 in the Asmauli village of Ojhari.