The police crackdown occurred shortly after the Election Commission of India (ECI) was contacted by the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) in response to their sharing of the incident's footage on X, the former name of Twitter.
Digital Desk: Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday initiated legal action against unidentified individuals in response to a viral video circulating on social media. The video purportedly depicts a young man casting multiple votes in favor of a BJP candidate at a polling booth within the state. In the approximately two-minute-long video, the individual can be observed casting votes for BJP candidate Mukesh Rajput on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) for at least eight times.
However, we couldn't verify the video's authenticity. It's worth noting that Rajput is a BJP candidate contesting from the Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
After this revelation, an FIR was lodged at the Naya Gaon police station following a complaint by ARO Prateet Tripathi. The case has been filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and pertinent laws, including IPC Section 171F (about offenses related to elections), IPC Section 419 (regarding punishment for cheating by personation), as well as Sections 128, 132, and 136 of the Representation of the People Act (which address the secrecy of voting, electoral fraud, and other election-related offenses), among others.
The police crackdown occurred shortly after the Election Commission of India (ECI) was contacted by the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) in response to their sharing of the incident's footage on X, the former name of Twitter.
"Dear Election Commission, do you see this? One person is voting 8 times. It's time to wake up," Congress wrote on X.
It is to be noted that 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.
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