Fearing arrest in the theft case of an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), a former minister of state has approached the Sessions court seeking anticipatory bail.
Madhav Kinhalkar, who was minister of state for home in 1993, and his brother Satish Kinhalkar, filed an anticipatory bail plea after receiving notices from MRA Marg police station directing them to appear for questioning. Principal Sessions judge M L Tahalayani, while granting the duo interim relief, directed the police to file their reply by October 8. The Mumbai police have arrested two persons in connection with the theft case — Hyderabad-based researcher Hari Prasad and human rights activist Mukund Lagoo. Both are out on bail.
Prasad had appeared on a local TV channel demonstrating the ways an EVM could be tampered with. “I would be falsely implicated in this case by rival politicians. Since 2009, I have been working towards revealing how politicians tamper with EVMs to get the desired results,” Madhav’s bail plea states.
In 2009, Madhav contested against Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, but lost. “I was shocked to see the results and suspected that the EVMs must have been tampered with.”