Patna, Oct 19 (IANS): The Begusarai Police have booked four minors on the charge of looting a polling booth during the district panchayat elections, a police official said.

The four minors appeared before the Begusarai Additional Sessions Judge Court on Monday. All are said to be natives of Rajaura village panchayat under the Sadar block in Begusarai district.

The four are aged from 7 to 9 years. They are facing charges of looting the booth, threatening people to vote for a particular candidate and physically assaulting villagers of Rajaura panchayat. The officials of Mufassil police station served a notice to the families of the children to appear before a local court.

The families of the four claimed that some officials deliberately booked their children for looting a polling booth to help their neighbours.

"We have a dispute with our neighbours who influenced some officials of Mufassil police station to book my son. They want to ruin the future of our children. Hence, they have conspired against us using their contacts with police officials," said Manan Rai, father of one of the children.

When contacted, Awakash Kumar, Begusarai Superintendent of Police, told IANS, "The police officials have registered an FIR against the minors. As the matter came to our knowledge, we immediately directed senior officials to investigate this case. After the investigation, the names of the minors were removed from the FIR."

"We have initiated an enquiry against the officials involved in wrongdoing and dragging the names of minors in the FIR," the SP said.