A Bharatiya Janata Party worker’s son was arrested on Sunday, 21 May, after a video showing the teenager purportedly voting for the saffron party eight times in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency went viral. The Quint has accessed the FIR copy to look into the charges.
Identifying the boy, the Chief Electoral Office of UP posted on X (Formerly Twitter), “The person appearing to be voting multiple times in the video has been identified as Rajan Singh, son of Anil Singh, resident of village Khiriya Pamaran and has been arrested by the police."
Anil Singh is a BJP member and gram pradhan.
Mukesh Rajput, the current MP is also the BJP candidate form the seat. The video is from Khiri Pamaran village in Etah district of Uttar Pradesh. This village comes under the Aliganj Assembly constituency, which falls under the Farrukhabad parliamentary seat.
You can read all our 2024 election related coverage here.
As per the FIR filed in Nayagaon police station in Etah, these are the charges applied:
171 F of IPC: Punishment for undue influence at an election
419 of IPC: Punishment for cheating by personation
Sections of Representation of People Act related to maintaining secrecy of vote (128), misconduct at the polling station (132) and electoral offence (136)
Section 66 of IT Act: Computer related offences
Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa, speaking to ANI, said, "He has been arrested. Suspension and departmental action on the polling party of that booth have been decided. Re-election has been recommended to the Election Commission."
In the viral video, the guy is seen casting eight votes on the EVM for the BJP candidate, as he himself shows one by one. During the third vote, he says, "This third number is of Vivek, see now," as he held his Aadhar card.
Shortly after, several Opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav posted on X, "BJP's booth committee is actually a loot committee."
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday alleged that the BJP wants to “loot democracy” by putting pressure on the administrative machinery.
“The Congress expects from all the officers performing election duty that they should not forget their constitutional responsibility under the pressure of power,” the Lok Sabha MP said in a post on X. “Otherwise, as soon as the INDIA bloc forms the government, we will take such action that anyone will think ten times before insulting the 'oath of the Constitution’.”
The FIR has called for a swift and immediate investigation into the matter and as pet the CEO, UP, instructions to suspend and institute disciplinary proceedings against all members of the polling party have been issued.
Moreover, strict instructions to rigorously follow the procedure in regard to identification of the voters have also been issued to all District Election Officers of the remaining phases in UP.
Responding to Congress' post, The DM of Farrukhabad, Dr. Vijay Kumar Singh also wrote on X that he taken notice of the incident and the complaint has been filed in the case.
Polling in the Farrukhabad seat took place in the fourth phase of the general election on May 13.
Meanwhile, as people questioned the ECI for this misconduct at Farrukhabad, another incident has come to light from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh.
A video has emerged on social media where a woman is purportedly alleging that she was forced to vote for BJP at the polling booth. However, in this issue, the DM of Fatehpur Indhumathy wrote that the "woman was facing an issue while casting the vote and the officer had only instructed the woman to press the button.
(The Quint has also reached out to the Nayagaon police station in Farrukhabad, response will be added once received)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)