The Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday arrested a young voter in connection with a viral video doing rounds on social media which showed him casting multiple votes in favour of a BJP candidate at a polling booth in a populous state.
The accused, identified as one Rajan Singh, was arrested after several leaders of the opposition parties, including Congress and Samajwadi Party, shared the video of the incident on X (formerly known as Twitter).
In the two-minute-long video, the voter can be seen voting for a BJP candidate, Mukesh Rajput, on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at least 8 times. India Today, however, could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Notably, Rajput is a BJP candidate from Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
Following the revelation, an FIR was filed at the Naya Gaon police station based on a complaint by ARO Prateet Tripathi.
The case has been registered under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other relevant laws, including IPC Section 171F (offense related to elections), IPC Section 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), Sections 128, 132, and 136 of the Representation of the People Act (related to maintaining the secrecy of voting, fraud at elections, and other election offenses) and others.
Even the Election Commission took cognisance of the matter and has directed concerned authorities to take prompt and effective action.
“Cognizance of the circulating video has been taken. Concerned District Election Officer has been directed to take prompt and effective action,” Chief Election Officer, Uttar Pradesh said.
The poll panel has also directed authorities to suspend and institute disciplinary proceedings against all official present at the polling booth when the incident took place.
The crackdown came soon after the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) shared the video of the incident on X (formerly known as Twitter) and sought action from the Election Commission of India (ECI).
“Dear Election Commission, do you see this? One person is voting 8 times. It’s time to wake up,” Congress wrote on X.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also shared the video and sought action from the Election Commission.
“If the Election Commission feels that this is wrong, they should certainly take some action, otherwise… BJP’s booth committee is actually a loot committee” Yadav wrote on X. (Agencies)