Bihar: Sarairanjan ARO suspended for negligence in handling election material

Earlier, the ECI ordered a probe after a large number of VVPAT slips were found dumped near SR College in Shitalpatti village of Samastipur district

PATNA: Following a directive of Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday, the Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) of Sarairanjan assembly constituency in Bihar has been suspended for negligence in handling election material.

The slips were identified as those used during the mock poll conducted before the first phase of voting on Thursday.

Earlier, the ECI ordered a probe after a large number of VVPAT slips were found dumped near SR College in Shitalpatti village of Samastipur district. The slips were identified as those used during the mock poll conducted before the first phase of voting on Thursday.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) posted on X, “A large number of VVPAT slips coming out of EVMs were found thrown on the road near KSR College in the Sarairanjan Assembly constituency of Samastipur. When, how, why, and on whose instructions were these slips thrown? Will the ‘thief commission’ answer this? Is all this happening on the directions of the ‘dacoit of democracy’ who has camped in Bihar from outside?”

Taking cognisance of the incident, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar directed the Samastipur DM-cum-District Election Officer (DEO), Roshan Kushwaha to visit the site and conduct an inquiry. “DM Samastipur was directed to visit the spot and inquire. As these are VVPAT slips of Mock Poll, integrity of the polling process remains uncompromised. Contesting Candidates have also been informed by the DM. However, concerned ARO is being suspended for negligence and an FIR is being registered,” the ECI said.

Report from Vaishali, a video from the RN College counting centre has gone viral on social media, alleging that the CCTV camera installed to monitor the EVMs in the Mahnar-129 assembly constituency has been switched off.

The RJD shared a video on its Instagram page, claiming that something suspicious happened in the strong room in Hajipur, Vaishali district. The video shows a pickup van entering the area at night. It is also alleged that the CCTV cameras were switched off when the vehicle left. In the video, one large CCTV screen appears to be off while the others are on.

“In the strong room in Hajipur, CCTV cameras from various assembly constituencies are turned off one by one. A pickup van enters and exits at midnight. This is happening. Expressing worry that switching off the CCTV could allow tampering with the EVMs and affect the election results”. The RJD tagged the ECI and asked for a response.

The JD (U) state president is contesting from the Mahnar assembly seat against RJD’s Ravindra Singh.

“After investigating the context of the entry and exit of the pickup vehicle, it was found that in the middle of the night, the vehicle entered the college complex with the uniform of the security personnel engaged in Vajragriha security and went back within fifteen minutes. Regarding the exit and entry of the vehicle, the security personnel located at the main gate of the college campus have entered the guard register. At the same time, the above facts were also confirmed by Kundan, the agent of the candidate of Lalganj Assembly who sent the video. The TV display screen was switched off for some time due to auto timeout which has been turned on,” said DEO-cum-DM (Vaishali) Varsha Singh.