EVMs, VVPATs found during polling at Bihar hotel, officer land in trouble

As the Phase V Lok Sabha elections were taking place on Monday in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, two EVMs and VVPATs were recovered from a hotel near a polling booth, causing a hue and cry among booth workers.

According to sources, in Muzaffarpur, sector magistrate Avdesh Kumar was in charge of 4 EVMs, which were kept as a backup option in case any machine in the area failed.

The driver of the officer excused himself to cast his vote at a nearby polling booth after coming out of a polling booth in Muzaffarpur on Monday. That’s when Avdesh Kumar came down with the EVMs, VVPATs and a control unit at a nearby hotel.

Soon, the polling officer’s news carrying EVMs reached at the polling booth with party agents. Alarmed, questions were raised and protest began. This led Kundan Kumar, the local Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO), to get to the Muzaffarpur hotel. He seized the EVMs and VVPATs right away.

Muzaffarpur District Magistrate Alok Ranjan Ghosh said, “Sector officer was given some reserved machines so that it could be replaced with faulty ones. After replacing EVMs he was left with 2 balloting units, 1 control unit, and 2 VVPATs in his car.”

Ghosh added, “He shouldn’t have unloaded the machines in the hotel which is against rules. Since he has violated the rules a departmental investigation will be done.”

The concerned officer, Avdesh Kumar, has been issued a show-cause notice to justify why he took the machines to a hotel.