Vijayapura: Few villagers in Masabinala village of Vijayapura district stopped the vehicle of a sector officer and damaged the reserve EVMs on Wednesday. The incident occurred around noon when a sector officer's vehicle was transporting reserve EVMs to the Basavanabagevadi constituency.
The villagers stopped the vehicle and proceeded to damage two control units, two ballot units, and three VVPATs by throwing them on the road. The sector officer was also manhandled by the mob.
Officials reported that the villagers mistook the EVMs for being taken to be misused and thus damaged them.
The Vijayapura district Superintendent of Police said that 23 people were arrested in connection to the incident.
The Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police rushed to the spot.
The election process continued unaffected.
Reserve EVMs are kept as stand-by as they can be used if any EVM deployed for voting purposes develops a snag in any of the booths.
