The election official admitted that he had tampered with the election results (Representational)
Chennai:
The Returning Officer (RO) attached to T Kallupatti panchayat in Madurai district on Monday admitted that he had changed the civic polls result for Ward 10 in favor of the DMK candidate due to pressure from local ruling party functionaries.
The RO accepted when a PIL by an independent candidate R Palaniselvi (40) challenging the declaration of RO made on February 22 came up for further hearing before the first bench of Chief Justice MN Bhandari and Justice D Bharat Chakraborty. Today.
According to petitioner Palaniselvi, he and his rival DMK’s R Subbulakshmi had secured an equal number of votes in the elections held on February 19.
Although much went in her favour, the election officer declared Subbulakshmi elected. Hence, the present petition for declaring the declaration made by the Returning Officer on 22nd February as invalid and consequently declaring him as a successful candidate.
When the matter came up for hearing at the last instance, the bench sought a video clipping of Lot’s conduct. Accordingly, the video clipping was introduced and the bench observed that the election officer had tampered with the result.
When the matter came to light today, the returning officer admitted that he had tampered with the election results under pressure from the local DMK office bearers.
The counsel representing the State Election Commission told the bench that the officer concerned has been suspended from service and Palanisevi has been declared the successful candidate.
After directing the returning officer to file an affidavit to this effect, the bench posted the matter after 10 days for passing the final order.