CLAIM
A newspaper clipping was shared by a Facebook page, “Bahujan Mukti Party, Voice Of India” stating that three people in Chhattisgarh were arrested for being in possession of laptops inside an EVM strong room.
The post has garnered 257 shares so far and the news has also been shared on Twitter.
TRUE OR FALSE?
Though the news is authentic, it is from last year, during the Chattisgarh Assembly elections and has been re-shared recently. News agency ANI reported on the incident on 7 December 2018.
In fact, the Madhya Pradesh Congress had tweeted about the incident too.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT?
A keyword search on Twitter led us to an ANI tweet about the incident dated 7 December 2018.
Though the ANI tweet says two men were arrested, the National Herald reports that three persons were caught in the incident.
The incident took place during the Assembly elections in Chattisgarh, last year when three men claiming to be employees of Reliance Jio were arrested after they were found inside a strongroom at Women’s Polytechnic College in Dharampura Jagdalpur. All EVMs and VVPATs of the Assembly were held there, to be counted on 11 December 2018.
Hindi daily Jansatta also reported that Congress candidate Rekhchand Jain filed a complaint in the Jagdalpur police station against the three men.
In his complaint, Jain stated that the three individuals have identified themselves as Umaapati Tiwari, Vijay Sarkar and Suraj Mandavi. He further demanded that the three be charged with violating the Election Commission's rules.
Meanwhile, Collector and District Election Officer Dr. Ayyaj Tamboli said that two security personnel were suspended due to negligence in duty. He also claimed that it was not possible to tamper with EVMs and VVPATs using a laptop.
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