AMBALA:
Indian National Lok Dal
(INLD)
Ambala seat candidate
Advocate Gurpreet Singh violated the secrecy of the election process by posting a video while voting at EVM compartment on his Facebook. Haryana voted on May 25 in the sixth phase of 18th
Lok Sabha elections
.
The video was posted on Election Day on May 25 at 15:31 pm. The video was posted from a Facebook account named Advocate Sardar Gurpreet Singh Sahota, with display photo of INLD Ambala candidate.
In his video post, Gurpreet Singh wrote, “
Ambala rachne ja raha hai itehas! Apne bete Gurpreet ke saath
.” (Ambala is going to make history! With their son Gupreet)
It is seen in the video of 17 seconds that a person approaches EVM machine keeping the mobile camera on video recording mode and records the video while vote is being polled to INLD candidate Gupreet Singh at second number on the list on machine.
The person who recorded the video shows pressing the EVM button to cast vote in front of Gurpreet Singh’s photo, INLD election symbol spectacles and the display of the same on the VVPAT machine.
As per the time of the posting the video, Gurpreet Singh committed the violation of the fair and transparent elections, while the election process was ongoing (7 am to 6 pm).
However, during the round of several polling booths in Ambala, it was observed that the district police administration had made tight security arrangements and the voters were asked to deposit their phones at the entrance. However, in the case of an INLD candidate, it seems, a voter managed to enter the polling booth with a mobile and recorded the video of the election process. The bar code number visible on the VVPAT machine recorded in the video is “BVTEQ30053”, which can probably help the administration to identify the polling booth.
The video was shared with Ambala returning officer-cum-deputy commissioner (DC) Shaleen, however, the response is yet awaited.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in similar cases of violation of election secrecy, Ambala police had booked Vikram Singh and Vivek Chaudhary of Lalana village, spokesperson of Jannayak Janata Party, under Section 136 of the Representation of the People Act and Section 171-F (punishment for undue influence or impersonation at an election), and Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code at Ambala Sadar police station.
English (US) ·