Bihar: Six EVMs, 1 VVPAT Recovered From Hotel in Muzaffarpur; District Officer Issued Show-cause Notice

At least six EVMs and one VVPAT has been recovered from a hotel in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. Following it, a show-cause notice was issued to the district officer for violating poll duties.

New Delhi: In a major security breach, as many as six Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and a VVPAT were recovered from a hotel in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur on Monday. District Magistrate of Muzaffarpur Alok Ranjan Ghosh said that the sector officer unloaded the machines in the hotel room, thus, going violating the rules.

A show-cause notice has been issued to the district officer over the violation of poll duties. Further, the officer will need to provide a proper explanation as to how the EVMs reached the hotel room.

“He shouldn’t have unloaded the machines in the hotel which is against rules. Since he has violated a departmental investigation will be done, ” the DM said. He added that an investigation into the matter will be done.

Alok Ranjan Ghosh also said, “Sector officer was given some reserved machines so that it could be replaced with faulty ones. After replacing EVMs he was left with 2 balloting unit,1 control unit & 2 VVPAT in his car.”

Notably, the five Lok Sabha seats that witnessed voting in Bihar on Monday included Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Saran and Hajipur (reserved).