Former Mayor arrested and released in election code violation case

KARIMNAGAR: In an unusual development, the Karimnagar One Town police arrested senior TRS leader and former Mayor S Ravinder Singh on the charges of election code of conduct violations and later released him in Karimnagar town on Wednesday (August 24).

It may be recalled that the Karimnagar One Town police have registered a case against Ravinder Singh, who contested the MLC elections as an Independent candidate from Karimnagar Local authorities’ constituency in November 2021 following the complaint lodged by Nodal officer and Karimnagar Rural RDO Sampath for model code of conduct violations. It is alleged that Mr Singh had advised the electors to collect Rs 10 lakhs from contestants of the MLC elections and elect him by collecting Re 1. Besides, the police had also registered another case of bursting fireworks on the polling day by the candidate.

Mr Singh was forced to contest as an independent candidate in the MLC elections following the denial of the party ticket. Incidentally, he secured more than 250 votes in the local bodies’ constituency. After the defeat in the elections, he received a call from Pragathi Bhavan and held day-long consultations with Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. Recently, Mr Singh also accompanied the Chief Minister during his visit to New Delhi.

But, the sudden arrest of Mr Singh and later releasing him on personal bond had raised several eyebrows and had become a hot topic in the district. The political analysts say that the incident was purposefully done by his bête noire to regain the past image of Mr Singh, who had shifted his loyalty from the party and contested the MLC elections as an independent and later rejoined the TRS. They said that it was an image-building exercise by Mr Singh, whose image was badly damaged after shifting his loyalty and again rejoining the TRS.

‘It is really ridiculous on the part of the police for arresting and releasing the former Mayor in the election code violation case after nearly 10 months after the MLC elections. It’s all planned drama”, the political analysts say.

hindudayashankar