Uttar Pradesh police on Sunday ordered unidentified persons to be arrested in connection with a video going viral on social media showing young people casting multiple votes for Bharatiya Janata Party candidates at a polling station in the populous state. A case has been registered.
In the two-minute video, voters are seen casting votes for BJP candidate Mukesh Rajput at least eight times on electronic voting machines (EVMs). However, India Today was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Notably, Rajput is a BJP candidate from Farkhabad Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
Following this revelation, an FIR was filed at Naya Gaon police station on the basis of ARO Prateet Tripathi’s complaint.
The case has been registered under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other relevant laws, including IPC Section 171F (election-related offenses), IPC Section 419 (punishment of cheating by false pretence) ), includes articles 128, 132 and 136. Representation of the People Act (relating to maintaining voting secrecy, electoral fraud, and other electoral violations), etc.
The police crackdown came soon after the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) shared a video of the incident on X. (Formerly known as Twitter) It then sought action from the Election Commission of India (ECI).
“Dear election officials, do you see this? One person is voting eight times. It’s time to wake up,” the council wrote to X.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also shared the video and sought action from the Election Commission.
“If the Election Commission feels this is wrong, then they should certainly take some action. Otherwise…the BJP’s booth committee is actually a looting committee.” Yadav wrote to X.
