60 FIRs filed in 1 month over defacement

New Delhi: The Delhi police has registered 60 FIRs under the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act since the notification was issued by the municipal bodies.

From electric polls to government offices, nothing has been spared when it comes to the candidates’ campaign messages. Data shared by the police show that 60 cases were registered between March 15 and April 19 when the model code of conduct came into being. All major parties in the fray, some upstarts and even Independent candidates — everyone has been accused of defacing these public properties by putting banners, posters, and paints on the buildings.

A majority of these cases have been registered in the three Eastern Range police districts with the newly-carved out Shahadra itself accounting for 20 cases. While the party-wise break up of these violations were not available for the centralised data, in Shahadra, four violations were reported from the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (APP) each, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accounted for two and Swaraj India for one.

That there is a spurt in the number of the violations, is also established when the available data is compared against the ones recorded for the preceding months. In the past three months, before the issuance of the notification, 36 cases were registered.

These violations are common given that often small businessmen also put their advertisements by sticking bills, but it picks up during elections, said a senior police officer.

The police also said that the deterrence is minimal as the cases registered under the Defacement of Public Properties are bailable in nature and despite warnings, such incidents are reported.

“It’s difficult to preempt these cases as campaigning is a continuous, day long activity and many players are involved. Some of these posters are also put up during the late hours when there is minimal police presence,” said the senior police officer.