A Hyderabad-based researcher,arrested for allegedly stealing an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM),was released on bail by a holiday court Saturday. Hari Prasad,43,had been in judicial custody after the police failed to secure his custody earlier. The court granted him bail observing that his custody was not needed for further investigation, said his counsel Mahesh Jethmalani. Prasad,the managing director of NetIndia,has been booked under Sections 454,457 and 380 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for house break-in and theft. Police are still on the lookout for the machine which Prasad claims to have handed over to officials in April. Magistrate S S Sharma granted him bail against a surety of Rs 25,000 and on a condition that he would appear in the MRA Marg police station every Wednesday for a month. I have been subjected to mental torture for a week. Ever since my arrest,I have stuck to my stand that I had received the machine to test it. I have no clue who sourced the machine and how. I had received it from activists who had approached me. I have no idea who had stolen the machine, said Prasad.
