Reliance Jio staff with laptops detained from EVM strongroom in Chhattisgarh

Amid ongoing assembly elections, a security breach in a strongroom—where EVMs and VVPAT machines are kept after the polling is over until the day of counting—has been reported from Chhattisgarh. Three persons, who claimed to be employees of Reliance Jio, were detained by police from a strongroom at Women's Polytechnic College, Dharampura Jagdalpur.

However, news agency ANI reported, that two persons detained in possession of laptops from a strong room in Jagdalpur on Thursday, December 6.

Prashant Kumar, a Journalist, posted a video on Twitter and wrote, “Three men, claiming to be working with Reliance Jio, apprehended from strongroom in Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur. EC comes up with a lame explanation: They were there to “check mobile signals”. Second time when security of Strong Room has been breached in Chhattisgarh.”

ABP News reported that two police officers have been suspended for the security lapse. The accused persons were nabbed by Congress activists, who later handed them over to the police. Claiming that they were trying to hack the EVMs, the party has taken up the matter with Election Commission.

Recently, Congress had handed over a memorandum to the Election Commission, raising issues like the EVM security inside strongrooms in poll-bound states.

The Congress leaders had also expressed shock over transportation of reserved EVMs to the strongroom in a school bus without a registration number in Madhya Pradesh.