EC: EVM allegation is false
The Election Commission of India on Tuesday flatly denied any role in the arrest of Hari Prasad for allegedly stealing an electronic voting machine (EVM) from a godown in South Mumbai. Hari Prasad, a technical coordinator of VeTA (Citizens for Verifiability, Transparency and Accountability in Elections), has been in the fore-front of a campaign to prove the theory that electronic voting machines can be tampered with.
He was arrested in Hyderabad for allegedly stealing in April from an old customs house in Mumbai, where electronic voting machines are stored.
Deputy election commissioner Alok Shukla said, “The arrest made by the police is in the course of an investigation conducted by them on an FIR lodged by DEO Mumbai as early as May 12 about an EVM stolen from her custody. The Election Commission cannot interfere in criminal investigation of the police in any manner and the law of the land takes its own course.”
He called the allegation that Hari Prasad was taken into custody at the behest of the Election Commission as “patently false”.
Mr Shukla, in a letter to “Save Democracy”, an NGO which has taken up cudgels against the Election Commission on behalf of Hari Prasad, has said that Hari Prasad was not only allowed to examine EVMs but was also assured that all his suggestions would be considered.
This letter was in response to one written by “Save Democracy” to Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi calling the arrest uncalled for.
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