The Election Commission of India (ECI) has recommended suspension of an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer along with two more officers and three outsourcing employees for allegedly and unauthorisedly downloading about 34,000 Electors Photo Identification Cards (EPIC) between March and April in 2021 in Tirupati Assembly Constituency, during the time of Tirupati Lok Sabha by-elections.
Further, the ECI has ordered for a police inquiry into the allegations. The ECI, reportedly, has established prima facie in this case through the official servers of the Commission, from where the alleged EPIC cards were downloaded and misused during the by-elections.
Sources in the ECI informed that all these EPICs were downloaded from the login of the then Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), who was working as Commissioner of Tirupati Municipal Corporation. At present, the ERO is discharging duties as a Collector of a district. The ECI has also recommended the suspension of the then Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) and outsourcing employees.
The ECI has initiated these actions based on a recent complaint lodged in December 2023 by the BJP against the violations in the electoral rolls pertaining to the Tirupati Lok Sabha by-elections.
The file related to the suspension of the then ERO and others is with K.S. Jawahar Reddy, Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh, who is likely to take appropriate action within a couple of days, according to sources at the State Secretariat, Velagapudi in Guntur.
Sources informed that for any modifications, changes and downloads of the EPICs from the ECI servers, the login credentials of the ERO is a mandate. To login into the ECI website through the ERO, the authorised officer’s mobile number gets a one-time password (OTP) and entering it is necessary before doing any operations in the portal. At that time, the ECI allowed the EROs to operate the portal for entire day, after they login once in a day.
The sources further informed that the IAS officer has denied his alleged role in it but as per the position he held at that time, he is under the radar of the ECI and has to face the inquiry and prove his innocence. Still, he is one of the main responsible officers for the misuse of his login and downloading the EPICs. Opposition parties had then alleged that the ruling YSR Congress Party manipulated the EPICs and casted votes through fake voters.
In that by-election, the YSRCP’s candidate Maddila Gurumoorthy defeated former Union Minister of State Panabaka Lakshmi of the TDP by a margin of over 14% votes.
