Karnataka cops set up helpline for poll aspirants

Candidates contesting the Karnataka assembly polls can be assured of one headache less. The state police plan to help those candidates who receive threatening calls.

Director General of Police K R Sreenivasan told a press conference on Wednesday that the Karnataka police had set up four lines at the control room to handle complaints regarding threatening calls received by candidates.

The DGP also said so far 4484 persons have been taken into preventive custody ahead of the elections. He added that illicit liquor worth Rs 1.1 crore has been seized from various parts of the state and 626 cases booked under the Karnataka Excise Act.

Apart from this 155 cases have been booked under the Prevention of Disfigurement of Public Properties Act, 1981.

Twentynine cases have been booked against persons for distributing articles in order to woo the voters, and that property worth Rs 75 lakh had been seized from them.

The DGP added that property worth around Rs 51 lakh had been damaged in election-related incidents and 12 persons injured in violence.