Mumbai Poll Official Refutes EVM Tampering Charge Amid FIR Against Shiv Sena MP Waikar’s Kin (Watch Video)

A poll official on Sunday said an EVM was a standalone system that does not need an OTP to unlock it. Vandana Suryavanshi, returning officer of Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency, was reacting to a report in Mid-day newspaper about a kin of Ravindra Waikar, the Shiv Sena candidate who emerged victorious there by a wafer thin margin of 48 votes, using a mobile phone connected to an EVM during vote counting on June 4."The EVM is a standalone system and there is no need for an OTP to unlock it. We have issued notice to Mid-day newspaper under sections 499, 505 of the Indian Penal Code for defamation and spreading false news," Suryavanshi said in a press conference on Sunday.

#WATCH | Mumbai Suburban Returning Officer, Vandana Suryavanshi says, "No OTP is needed to unlock the EVM. There is no mobile OTP needed to unlock the EVM as it is a non-programmable offence...It has advanced technical features and there is no communication device on the EVM...It… pic.twitter.com/EEB4Cn4AlT

— ANI (@ANI) June 16, 2024

Mangesh Pandilkar, brother-in-law of Waikar was booked on Wednesday for allegedly using a mobile phone at a counting centre on June 4, when results of the general elections were announced, a police official said on Saturday. The Vanrai police station official said the case was registered for Pandlikar's his alleged act inside a counting centre in Goregaon, which is part of Waikar's constituency."Pandilkar was booked on the complaint of polling personnel Dinesh Gurav. An independent candidate noticed the former using a mobile phone despite a ban on such devices at the counting centre and alerted the returning officer. The RO in turn approached Vanrai police," he said. Pandilkar has been booked under Indian Penal Code section 188 (disobeying official order), the official added.

Shiv Sena (Shinde)'s Ravindra Waikar  scripted one of the narrowest victories in the history of Lok Sabha elections when he defeated Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Amol Kirtikar in Mumbai North West constituency. Historically, this seat was held by Congress from 1967 to 1977. Renowned lawyer Ram Jethmalani then became the MP from this seat first with the Janata Party and then with BJP. From 1984 to 1996, actor Sunil Dutt held the seat for Congress. Shiv Sena won the seat in 1996 and 1998, but it went back to Sunil Dutt in 1999. After Sunil Dutt's death in 2005, his daughter Priya Dutt won the subsequent by-election.