The Andhra Pradesh Police have arrested Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party leader Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy for allegedly damaging an Electronic Voting Machine at a polling booth on May 13, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.
Polling for the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections was held simultaneously in Andhra Pradesh on that day.
Reddy, a five-time MLA from Macherla constituency, had been fielded by the YSR Congress Party from the seat in the recently-concluded Assembly election. He lost to the Telugu Desam Party’s Julakanti Brahmananda Reddy.
On May 13, Reddy was caught on a closed-circuit television camera grabbing an Electronic Voting Machine and smashing it to the ground inside a polling booth.
A first information report was registered against him for the offence.
Reddy subsequently applied for anticipatory bail and the Andhra Pradesh High Court initially stayed his arrest till June 4.
On Wednesday, however, the court rejected his bail plea and directed the police to take him into custody, reported The Indian Express.
According to the first information report, Reddy had vented his anger at several polling booths in Macherla because he was not receiving as many votes as the Telugu Desam Party candidate.
He then destroyed an Electronic Voting Machine at a polling booth in Palvaigate in Rentachintala. He also allegedly attacked Telugu Desam Party worker Namburi Seshagiri Rao, who tried to intervene and stop him from damaging the ballot machine, reported The Indian Express.
Rao, in his complaint, alleged that Reddy had instigated YSR Congress Party workers to attack members of the Telugu Desam Party.
Another first information report registered against Reddy claimed that his associates, as well as those of his brother Venkatrami Reddy, disrupted the voting process in Karempudi village on May 14.
The Telugu Desam Party won 135 out of the state’s 175 Assembly seats in the Assembly election. The Jana Sena Party won 21 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party clinched eight. The YSR Congress Party won 11 seats.
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