Jagityal district authorities break-open Dharmapuri strong room on High Court directions
The authorities alleged that the election officials failed to adhere to the rules.
HYDERABAD: The controversy erupted over the irregularities in the counting of votes in the election held for Dharmapuri constituency in the 2018 general elections is coming to an end after the Jagityal district authorities broke the lock of the strong room VRK College of Engineering and Technology at Nookapally in Jagtial district on Sunday and retrieved crucial evidence.
Upon the High Court's direction, around 200 personnel inspected the strong room for 17 hours under tight security and seized the crucial documents related to the election. The authorities found that there was malpractice in the counting process.
Stating that they broke the lock of the strong room in accordance with the court directions as the keys went missing, the officials concluded that there was malpractice in the counting process and negligence in providing security to the materials related to the election.
The authorities alleged that the election officials failed to adhere to the rules.
The Jagityal district authorities will submit a detailed report to the High Court on Monday, which will decide on April 26 the matter of recounting on the.
Meanwhile, Congress candidate Adluri Laxman expressed his anguish over the lack of CCTV footage and said that he would escalate the matter of CCTV footage to the court. He hoped that he would get justice in the fight
What is the Dharmapuri strong room caseThe authorities alleged that the election officials failed to adhere to the rules.
Congress candidate Adluri Laxman, who contested in the elections from the Dharmapuri constituency in 2018 and lost to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi candidate Koppula Eshwar by a meagre margin of 441 votes.
However, Adluri Laxman approached the High Court in 2019 alleging irregularities in the counting of votes. After several hearings, the High Court ordered a probe and the Election Commission of India conducted an inquiry with the three-member team and found the keys missing.
The High Court later accorded permission to break the lock of the strong room to continue the probe. The Jagityal district officials in compliance with the High Court order conducted search operations at the strong room and seized the documents related to the Dharmapuri election. They will submit a report to the High Court.