The Election Commission has ordered the immediate suspension of two Electoral Registration Officers in Uttar Pradesh over alleged irregularities in the electoral roll of the Pilibhit Assembly constituency.
The action follows an inquiry into alleged irregularities involving 10,470 voter entries. Opposition parties, mainly the Congress and Samajwadi Party, had alleged large-scale manipulation of the electoral roll.
In a letter to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer on Saturday, the Commission directed that Electoral Registration Officers Mayank Goswami and Hemant Chaudhary be suspended immediately, as per a report by news agency PTI.
The Commission said their chargesheets must be submitted to it for scrutiny and that they cannot be reinstated without its prior approval.
The poll authority also directed that Section 198 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, be added to the existing FIR against the two officers and Anil Kumar, a computer operator at a voter registration centre. It said the cases against them must be pursued rigorously.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa had earlier directed district election officers to deactivate the ECINET portal login IDs of computer assistants at voter registration centres across the state. The direction followed complaints of alleged misuse of login details in Pilibhit.
District election officers were also asked to obtain confirmation from the respective Electoral Registration Officers after deactivating the login IDs of computer assistants working as operators under them.
The inquiry concerned voter entries in the 127-Pilibhit Assembly constituency. It found that a computer assistant had allegedly misused ECINET portal login IDs and submitted 13,779 Form 8 applications seeking changes to voter details between May 31 and August 29. Of these, 10,470 applications were approved and 3,309 rejected.
However, no application forms or supporting documents relating to these entries were found in the office, PTI report mentioned.
An official statement said district election officers had 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.
The Chief Electoral Officer also directed the company concerned to immediately terminate the services of the outsourced computer assistant allegedly involved in the case.
The Election Commission’s directions include the suspension of the two registration officers, further action in the existing FIR, verification across Assembly constituencies and termination of the outsourced operator’s services.
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