A manhunt has been launched for YSRCP MLA Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy who was caught on camera damaging an EVM in Macherla constituency of Palnadu district of Andhra Pradesh after the Election Commission of India took serious view of his offence on Wednesday.

He gave the Andhra Pradesh police a slip while they were chasing his car in Sangareddy district of Telangana. The manhunt for Reddy was ordered by the Election Commission of India after a webcam in the polling booth at Palvai Gate caught him walking and nonchalantly throwing it on the floor to damage it while polling was going on. A total of seven EVMs were damaged in Macherla constituency on polling day.

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The sitting MLA was found absconding from his residence today morning and his phone and convoy were abandoned at Sangareddy. While his convoy was chased by police he stopped his car and switched to another vehicle before escaping.

Earlier in the day the chief electoral officer of Andhra Pradesh Mukesh Kumar Meena confirmed “Ramakrishna Reddy has been made accused number one. The video was released yesterday afternoon. At night EC gave orders to arrest him immediately. In the morning EC asked in writing whether he was involved or not and if involved FIR has been filed or not.”

After the video went viral police raided the residence of the MLA today morning but he was not found. Several police teams were deployed to arrest the sitting MLA.

Meena said “Election Commission has said such incidents are very shameful in the sense that our intention is to do free, fair and peaceful election and when the candidate himself starts doing such activity it is a very serious matter. So stringent actions should be considered as per the memo filed in the court against the accused. Ten sections have been put against him and these are very serious sections where punishment goes up to seven years.”

A TDP activist Namburi Sesha Rao was caught on camera protesting against the sitting MLA when he threw the EVM on the floor. He was later manhandled by the YSRCP supporters. He later went into hiding after being threatened.

The Palnadu area saw large scale poll violence on polling day on 13 May. The ECI had asked the state government to investigate within two days by forming a special investigation team (SIT). The EVM damage was revealed only after SIT’s inquiry.