AP CEO says EVMs vandalised in 9 places

Vijayawada: Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Kumar Meena said on Wednesday that EVMs were vandalised at 9 places in Andhra Pradesh on the day of polling. Of these, seven incidents occurred in Macherla alone.

Cases have been filed against the local MLA under 10 sections of the relevant law. The Election Commission took a serious note of the video that showed Ramakrishna Reddy damaging EVM in the Plavai Gate polling booth in Macherla Assembly constituency, the CEO said.

The video had gone viral on social media and electronic media since Tuesday night.

Meena said all the nine incidents were observed through webcasting by the officials including EC.

On repoll due to damage of EVMs, he said though the EVM were damaged, “the data is safe, as the main chip would be in the control unit and not in the ballot unit.” Due to this, “we continued the polling with new EVMs.”

He said, "The police have provided all the details to the SIT regarding the Palavai Gate EVM damage incident. On May 20, the sub-inspector of Rentachintala filed a memo in the court. Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy was named as the first accused. Cases were filed against him under 10 sections. If these are proven, the punishment would be up to seven years.

"Police teams went to Hyderabad to arrest him. We are investigating cases in other places as well. There is no need to leave anyone out. Transfers (of errant officials) were done on the orders of the EC. We did not hide anything in the EVM vandalism incident.”

The CEO added, “We handed over the evidence of EVM damage to the police the day after the incident. Order has been issued for immediate action. The EC ordered that Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy be taken into custody. It has taken a very serious view and instructed the DGP to take strict criminal action against all the culprits.”