SC probes ‘murder’ of fair polls after horse-trading claims

Observing that ldquohorsetrading is taking placerdquo the Supreme Court has said it would peruse on Tuesday the ballot papers of the Chandigarh mayoral polls and the entire videorecording of the counting day and directed the registrar general of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to depute a judicial officer to bring the records safely to DelhiThe top court on February 5 rapped Returning Officer Anil Masih who conducted the mayoral polls observing that it was obvious that he had defaced the ballot papers and that he should be prosecuted adding that his action amounted to ldquomurderrdquo and a ldquomockeryrdquo of democracyA bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud directed the Chandigarh administration on Monday to provide security to the judicial officer to be appointed by the high court to ensure the safety of the officer and the records ldquoWe ourselves will look at the records at 2 pmrdquo the bench also comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra saidldquoHorsetrading taking placerdquo the CJI said while declining a plea that the case on the mayoral polls be heard on some other day instead of Tuesday Masih appeared before the bench in pursuance of the apex courtrsquos direction and was quizzed over the alleged tampering of certain ballot papersMayorrsquos resignation shows BJP won by using lsquounfair meansrsquo KejriwalDelhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that BJP leader Manoj Sonkarrsquos resignation as Chandigarh mayor shows that they won the elections by using ldquounfair meansrdquo Addressing the media outside the Delhi Assembly Kejriwal said ldquoIf the mayor has resigned then it is very obvious that something is suspicious there It clearly shows that they won the elections by unfair meansrdquoldquoThis is how they win other elections too if they donrsquot they buy leaders from the winning party How will a democratic country function if elections are won unfairly They BJP should let the party that won the elections run the governmentrdquo Kejriwal alleged Sonkar resigned as Chandigarh mayor and three AAP councillors Neha Poonam and Gurcharan Kala joined the BJP on Sunday AAP hits out at BJP as councillors switch sidesA day after three of its municipal councillors switched over to the BJP the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday hit out at the party accusing it of threatening them and using unfair tactics to poach themAam Aadmi Party councillors from Chandigarh Poonam Devi Neha and Gurcharan Kala join BJP PicPTIThe Congress which contested the recent mayoral polls jointly with the AAP also targeted the BJP alleging that the entire election episode had exposed it before the public Three AAP councillors Neha Poonam and Gurcharan Kala joined the BJP in the presence of senior party leader Vinod Tawde on SundayThe development came hours after BJP leader Manoj Sonkar resigned as Chandigarh mayor on Sunday a day before the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear a plea alleging irregularities in the mayoral polls3No of AAP councillors who joined BJPThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever