EVM strongroom tampered with, alleges SP's Badaun LS candidate

Badaun/Sambhal (UP): Samajwadi Party's Badaun Lok Sabha candidate Dharmendra Yadav Thursday complained of tampering with the strongroom where the EVMs were kept, accusing the Sambhal district administration of working in a partisan manner, a charge refuted by the authorities.

"The district administration denied our requests for providing a pass to our agents at the strongroom on the Bahjoi Mandi Samiti campus. On Wednesday, between 6 pm and 9 pm, some developments took place there," claimed Yadav, who is the sitting MP of Badaun.

 The strongroom falls in Sambhal district. The Badaun Lok Sabha constituency, which went to polls in the third phase on April 23, is spread over Badaun and Sambhal districts.

 "We have a video footage and pictures that prove that the net on the outer doors of the strongroom was damaged and the seal of the inner gate, where the EVMs have been kept, was broken. A new seal has been put in its place," he said.

Adding that a complaint in this regard is being made to the Election Commission, he said,"We have information that EVMs of the Gunnaur vidhan sabha segment have been changed."       

Sabhal ADM (Adminstration) Lavkush Tripathi said a parrot had got entangled in the net and in an effort to take it out, a part of the net of the outer gate was shifted from its place.

 Sambhal District Magistrate Avinash Krishna rejected the charges, saying there was no truth in them.