Kerala police book online channel for propagating fake news about EVMs

The case was registered based on a complaint lodged by the district collector, PTI quoted the state police.

The Kerala police have registered a case against an online channel for allegedly propagating fake news about electronic voting machines and poll officials ahead of the state's upcoming elections. According to the case registered at the City Cyber crime station in the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram, the online channel published a piece of news stating that electronic voting machines kept in the capital district have glitches. Following this, there was a dispute between election officials and politicians in connection with the matter.

The online channel published a piece of news stating that electronic voting machines kept in the capital district have glitches.(HT File)

PTI quoted the state police as saying the case was registered based on a complaint lodged by the district collector. The online channel withdrew the news afterwards, police said in a Facebook statement. The state police warned of stringent action against those spreading misleading news concerning the Lok Sabha polls. Police added that a 24-hour cyber patrol has also been launched in the state to detect all kinds of cyber crimes.

READ | Kerala EC official responds to Opposition's ‘extra BJP votes’ claim during mock poll

Earlier, Kerala's chief electoral officer (CEO) reacted to the Opposition's charges that the Bharatiya Janata Party got extra votes during mock polls in Kasaragod district. “EVM is a tested machine. There have been numerous petitions to the Supreme Court questioning the credibility of EVM. There has been an elaborate judgement as far as the security, safety of the EVM Machine is concerned. It is a standalone machine; it is not connected to anywhere else…," it said.

Kaul said that the incident that took place in Kasaragod was a ‘procedural mistake’. “What happened in Kasargod, the commission is being done by the Bharat Electronics limited, whose machines these are. They wanted to complete this process very fast. When they test the print test button, first candidates name came, they stop machine, thinking that it's all fine,” the Kerala CEO said.

On Thursday, advocate Prashant Bhushan, while appearing for the Association for Democratic Reforms, cited a news report before the Supreme Court regarding complaints received during a mock poll. After the top court bench asked the EC to look into the matter, senior deputy election commissioner Nitesh Kumar Vyas said, "These news reports are false... We will submit a detailed report to the court."

(With PTI inputs)