Waikar OTP Case: Returning officer says 'EVM non-programmable'
Mumbai: Vandana Suryavanshi, Returning officer of the Mumbai North West constituency, stated that OTP was not used for the purpose of unlocking the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) as it was non-programmable. The machine does not have any wireless or wired communication capabilities, she said. Suryavanshi was addressing the media at the Collector's office in Bandra on Sunday.
Suryavanshi said that EVM's were standalone devices with no external connectivity and therefore it has no One Time Password (OTP) system to unclock them. "We seal the machines after voting and open them with the signatures of the counting agents on them", she clarified. However, OTPs were required at the ENCORE system where the Election Commission (EC) data was updated and EVMs had no connection with this, she added.
Referring to the controversy surrounding Shiv Sena Candidate Ravindra Waikar, Vandana Suryavanshi said that "On June 4, during the counting of votes, a mobile phone was found inside the NESCO centre. We informed the police immediately to act accordingly. The complaint was raised by candidates Surinder Arora and Bharat Shah who caught Pandilkar with a phone, and we handed over the phone and Pandilkar to the police to take cognizable action". However, the Vanrai Police registered the FIR after June 11. Police later told the EC representatives that ENCORE operator Dinesh Gurav had given his phone to Pandilkar.
Speaking on the issues related to sharing the CCTV of the incident with the police, Suryavanshi said that it couldn't be done until an order from 'a competent court'. She said that after declaring of results on the counting day, Kirthikar and his party had only made a claim about their counting agent counting more votes than Ravindra Waikar. They had lodged a written complaint regarding this on the spot. She denied any manipulation happening inside the NESCO centre where the counting was held.
Stressing on the impossibility of any EVMs being hacked, the returning officer said that there was no mention of any OTPs in the FIR lodged by the EC. However, it mentioned about the ENCORE process. ENCORE is an online system where the assistant returning officer uses an OTP to generate data entries. That is why the EC had allowed mobile phones inside the NESCO center, she said. Suryavanshi stated that manual entry votes were also counted three times in the counting centre.
Collector Rajendra Shankar Kshirsagar was also present at the press meet.
During the Lok Sabha Election of 2024, Ravindra Waikar of Shiv Sena's Shindhe faction had won by a very low margin of 48 votes against Amol Kirtikar of the UBT faction in Mumbai North West. The controversy erupted when Mangesh Pandilkar, a counting agent and close relative of Waikar, was accused of operating a mobile phone inside the counting center on June 4. Surinder Arora from the Bharat Jan Aadhar Party and Bharat Khimji Shah from the Hindu Samaj Party had registered a complaint in this regard at the Vanrai police station and the police had confiscated the phone from Pandilkar.
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4 held for sexually assaulting woman, girl on moving bus after social media alert in UP's Agra
Agra (UP) (PTI): Four people were arrested, after a prompt response by police following a social media alert, for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman and a girl inside a moving bus here, officials said on Tuesday.
According to an official police statement, at 12:27 am on April 27, information was received on the social media platform X about an incident of sexual assault on a bus travelling from Kanpur to Ahmedabad, which was approaching Namner crossing in Agra.
Acting under the direction of Police Commissioner Deepak Kumar, the Agra Police social media team immediately alerted the Rakabganj police station within minutes and coordinated with the victims to confirm the incident and obtain the exact location, it stated.
Police teams launched intensive checking at Namner crossing and intercepted the bus as it reached the spot. The four accused involved in the incident were apprehended on the spot, and legal action was initiated against them, the statement said.
The police said the swift response and coordination between the social media team and field units ensured timely action, bringing relief to the victims and other passengers, who expressed gratitude towards the police, it added.
