Gujarat police get fake Election Commission letter seeking inquiry into ‘EVM scam’
The Gandhinagar police registered a case of forgery after the state poll body confirmed that the document was forged.
The Gujarat Police registered a case of forgery against unknown persons on Wednesday after receiving a letter that falsely claimed to be from the Election Commission of India, reported PTI. Police officials in other districts in the state received similar letters.
“We received the letter on May 25, purportedly from the [Election Commission], asking for a ‘discreet inquiry’ into the [Electronic Voting Machine] scam and a ‘confidential report’,” Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police Virendra Singh Yadav told PTI. News18, however, reported that the letter was dated April 2.
The letter was typed on a forged letterhead of the Election Commission of India and had the signature of the deputy chief electoral officer of Gujarat, reported News18. However, it does not refer to any particular election, said Yadav.
Yadav said the document was sent to the state election commission officials who said that it was fake, following which a case was registered.
“If there is a problem with [the] EVM machine, then under [a] confidential police inquiry, you should investigate [the] scam of the EVM machine,” the letter read. “You should send us an effective report of the EVM machine scam within 30 days...you have to keep this report completely confidential.”
Bye-elections in four Lok Sabha constituencies and nine Assembly seats across 10 states was held on Tuesday. However, repolling had to be conducted in 123 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Nagaland over complaints of faulty EVMs and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail machines.
Opposition parties have of late expressed concerns about the possibility of electronic voting machines being vulnerable to tampering. The allegations of rigged EVMs have become more frequent in the wake of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victories in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh last year.