'Token for Cash' saga plays out in Kumbakonam, grocery shop owner stunned!

Numerous false tokens citing the amount Rs. 2,000 in the name of "Priyam Malligai Agency", a shop in Bhattachariyar street in Kumbakonam, were distributed to locals who thronged the shop to avail the deal. This led to the shopkeeper clarifying that he had nothing to do with the tokens. The shopkeeper shut his shop in the wake of a surge of visitors demanding groceries in exchange for the false coupons.

Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu): A grocery shop owner in Kumbakonam town of Thanjavur district is now in the firing line. Locals in that area queued up in front of his shop with a token to buy grocery items worth Rs. 2,000 earlier today.

As Tamil Nadu voted for the Assembly elections yesterday, the cash-for-vote saga continues to haunt the state. The case in Kumbakonam is another kind of version in the vote hunt.

Numerous tokens were printed citing the amount Rs 2,000 in the name of "Priyam Malligai Agency", a shop in Bhattachariyar street in Kumbakonam.

These tokens were distributed to the voters promising that they could encash the token for Rs 2,000 worth of grocery items after the polling.

This morning people queued up in front of the shop with tokens to buy grocery. Sheik Mohammed, the owner of the shop, stunned by the development, told the customers that the tokens were bogus and denied that no such promises were made. Being an AIADMK party member, Mohammed said some fraudsters misled voters by distributing these bogus tokens.

Even after his clarification, customers continued to surge to the shop. Mohammed closed the shop and pasted a printed poster on the shutter stating that the tokens never belonged to the shop and that the shop was not responsible for the false promise.