Jagtial: Officials open EVM strong rooms of Dharmapuri constituency

Based on Telangana High Court’s instructions, district collector and election officer Yasmeen Basha and other officials broke open the strong room and collected information from EVM No.258

Jagtial: District officials on Sunday opened the EVM strong rooms of Dharmapuri constituency in the VRK Engineering College in Nukapalli.

Based on the High Court’s instructions, district collector and election officer Yasmeen Basha and other officials broke open the strong room and collected information from EVM No.258, which has to be submitted in the court on April 26. Each and every movement was recorded with video cameras.

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Dharmapuri Congress candidate Adluri Laxman Kumar, who was defeated in the 2018 elections, approached the high court alleging that irregularities had taken place in the counting of votes. The court instructed district officials to submit 17A, 17C documents and CCTV footage of counting by opening the strong room. Though the officials tried to open a strong room on April 10, they could not do it as the key of the strong room went missing.

As the officials informed the same to the HC, the court instructed them to break open the strong room and submit the details on April 26. The court has also instructed the officials to record everything with a camera.

On the other hand, keys of 20 trunk boxes, wherein EVMs were stored, also went missing. Keys of only four trunk boxes were available. The other trunk boxes were also broke open by the officials.