May 06, 2019:
On Sunday, District Election Officer Anvy Lavasa ordered a First Information Report (FIR) against two BJP leaders for allegedly attempting to bribe some Leh Press Club members for favorable poll coverage.
“An inquiry has been concluded and prima facie the allegations appear to be correct. We have asked the police to register an FIR...against those, who tried to bribe,” said Lavasa, who is also Leh’s deputy commissioner.
Lavasa had called for the inquiry on Friday after Leh’s Press Club complained that four of its members were offered bribes after a press conference a day earlier. The club had asked for action against the BJP for the violation of the model code of conduct that prohibits anything that may influence voters.
Leh Press Club president, Morup Stanzin, said BJP’s Vikram Randhawa had handed over envelopes to the four in presence of the party’s Jammu and Kashmir chief, Ravinder Raina, after concluding the press conference. “Our members felt something was wrong and checked the envelopes. There were ₹500 notes in the envelopes.
"When the members asked about the money, Randhawa said it was a ‘token of love’. As they tried to return the money, he refused. So they put those envelopes on a table,” he said.
Leh comes under the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat, which would go to the polls on Monday. Repeated attempts to reach Raina for his comment were unsuccessful. His phone was switched off.
BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur dismissed the allegations as incorrect. “Some political party is using the journalists to make such allegations...”.
Randhawa called the allegations fake.
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