Hours after they registered a non-cognisable complaint against Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar under section 171 (c) of the IPC regarding a threat allegedly handed by Ajit Pawar to a group of villagers in Baramati lok Sabha constituency, the Pune district rural police on Saturday submitted their inquiry report to District Collect Saurabh Rao, giving a “clean chit” to the deputy chief minister on a complaint lodged against the latter by Aam Admi Party (AAP) candidate Suresh Khopade.
The Pune rural police submitted its report to the Pune district administration, a day after the Election Commission (EC) sought a report from the District Collector on allegations that Pawar had on April 16 threatened a group of people from Masalwadi village in Baramati constituency that he would “cut off” their water supply if they did not vote for his cousin Supriya Sule of the ruling NCP.
Confirming the submission of a report to the district administration, Superintendent of Pune district Rural Police Manoj lohiya told The Pioneer on Saturday night: “We inquired into a complaint lodged by AAP candidate Suresh Khopde with Vadgaon police and found that there was no substance in either of the two allegations he had made in his complaint. We have accordingly registered a non-cognisable officence under section 171 (c) of the IPC and submitted our report to the
district collector”.
In elaboration, lohiya said: “Our Deputy SP conducted the investigations into the complaint lodged by the AAP candidate. Our officials visited the Masalwadi village and found that Ajit Pawar had held no public meeting there on April 16 in violation of Model Code of Conduct, as was being alleged by Khopade. Similarly, our
officials didn’t find any evidence of his (Pawar) handing any threats to the villagers. On the basis of our investigations, we have submitted our report to the Pune district district collector”.
Section 171 (C) pertains to “undue influence at elections” and states “whoever voluntarily interferes or attempts to interfere with the free exercise of any electoral right commits the offence of undue influence at an election.”
lohiya said that since they had not found any substance in the two allegations made by the AAP candidate in his complaint, the Pune rural police would not be pursuing the complaint further. “Hence, if the complainant (Khopade) wants to pursue the case, he can approach the court”.