New Delhi: The Election Commission has directed the suspension of two Electoral Registration Officers in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit Assembly constituency over alleged irregularities in the electoral roll.
In a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, the Commission directed that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) Mayank Goswami and Hemant Chaudhary be placed under immediate suspension.
Their chargesheets must be submitted to the EC for scrutiny (vetting), and they cannot be reinstated without the Commission’s prior approval.
The poll authority also directed that Section 198 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, be added to the existing FIR against the two officers and Anil Kumar, a voter registration centre computer operator. Their cases must be pursued rigorously, the poll body said.
The controversy erupted after opposition parties, primarily the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP), alleged large-scale electoral roll manipulation.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa had earlier directed district election officers to deactivate the ECINET portal IDs of computer assistants at voter registration centres across the state, following complaints of alleged misuse of login credentials in Pilibhit.
The district election officers have also been asked to obtain confirmation from the respective EROs after the login IDs of the computer assistants working as operators under them are deactivated.
The action follows an inquiry into alleged irregularities in 10,470 voter entries in the Assembly constituency, 127-Pilibhit.
The probe found that a computer assistant had allegedly misused login IDs on the ECINET portal and entered 13,779 Form-8 applications for changes in voter details between May 31 and August 29, of which 10,470 were approved and 3,309 rejected.
However, no application forms or supporting documents related to these entries were found in the office.
The district election officers have also been directed to personally verify the action taken in all Assembly constituencies and submit compliance reports to the chief electoral officer’s office without delay, an official statement said.
Further, the CEO had directed the firm concerned to immediately terminate the services of the outsourced computer assistant allegedly involved in the case pertaining to the 127-Pilibhit Assembly constituency.
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