The Chief Electoral Officer, S V Bhave had ordered an inquiry after he received a direction from the Election Commission to investigate the chief minister's remarks besides the off-loading of passenger vehicles by the State Police to make locals forcibly attend his rally. The EC had also sought a report from its observers in the constituency.

Interestingly, the inquiry turned out to be an exercise in passing the buck from one officer to another as the State Government officials are reluctant to annoy the ruling party. They fear reprisals by the State Government after the elections are over.

The Chief Electoral officer, S V Bhave had asked the district election officer, Sheikh Mohammad Hussain to conduct the inquiry. Hussain, who is also thedeputy commissioner of Baramulla district, deputed Chief Education Officer, Ghulam Mohammad Malik to Pattan and Tangmarg to investigate the matter. Malik also passed the buck and asked the zonal magistrate, Pattan, Abdul Majeed to inquire. Majeed, who is an agriculture officer finally gave a clean chit to the chief minister saying that neither had he uttered any such remark during the speech nor did the police use force to make people attend CM's rally.

``Once I was told to conduct the inquiry. I went to the spot but could not talk to anybody as the villagers were scared. I then met the Zonal Magistrate, Abdul Majeed, who is also Chief Agriculture officer. He told me that no such thing had happened during the CM's rally,'' Malik told The Indian Express. ``I reported to the District Election Officer where I quoted the zonal magistrate,'' he said. The zonal magistrate, Abdul Majeed, however, was not available for any comments.

The Chief Electoral Officer, however, in a statement released late thisevening, said that he has found that the Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has not made any such specific remarks. Quoting, two among the four observers deputed by the EC, he said, ``They told me that the speech that was in Kashmiri which was simultaneously being translated to them and that they did not find any such remark in CM's speech''. Bhave claimed the security forces were engaged in frisking of the people and did not force them to attend the rally.

Meanwhile, in separate statement, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah today denied to have said that the Government will use force to bring out voters saying, `` the voters are free to vote for whomsoever they wish; why should anybody stop them, threaten them or force them not to vote at gun point''.

Citing the example of the first phase of polls in Srinagar constituency, Farooq said, ``We have not employed any force during the first phase of elections in Srinagar, why should we do it now''. He added, ``Pakistan does not want the people of Kashmir toparticipate in democratic process and their lackeys are harassing the people by issuing threatening letters and pasting posters outside mosques so that Kashmir does not have peaceful polls''.