Electronic Voting Machine stolen from high-security room in collectorate

In the first such incident in the state, an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) has been stolen from the high-security store room of the district collectorate headquarters in South Mumbai.While officials from the collector’s office said the stolen machine was from the reserve stock, which is used to train election officials, chief electoral officer Debashish Chakrabarty suspects foul intention behind the theft. The election commission has ordered an internal probe.The incident came to notice when a local television channel in Hyderabad displayed the EVM last week and blamed lax security at the Mumbai collectorate for it. The initial probe has ascertained that the machine had been stolen by an unknown person from the store room, where 4000 EVMs are kept.The collector’s office lodged a complaint with the local police on Wednesday after making it sure that the EVM was indeed from the reserve stock. “We have had incidents in the past leading to the loss of machines, but all those instances were due natural calamities or accidents. Some of them were lost in Naxal attacks. The theft of the machine has been registered for the first time,” said Chakrabarty.“It is a clear case of attempt to manipulate the system. It has been taken seriously because it is a matter of trust and faith people have in the electronic machines. Secondly, given the way the case is being blown up in Hyderabad, it is clear that there is bad intention behind it,” he added.Apart from the reserve stock, the store has two other compartments for the storage of the EVMs, said an official in the collectorate. Machines used in elections are kept separately. In cases where the EVM results or functioning have been challenged through political petitions, the machines are sealed. “The sealed EVMs are kept amidst tight security with no permission to anyone in the compartment to enter,” the official said.The official added that the store room has round-the-clock police security.