Amritsar man held for bid to hack EVM

The Punjab police is probing an alleged bid to hack electronic voting machines outside some polling booths in Amritsar during the municipal corporation elections held in the state

The Punjab police is probing an alleged bid to hack electronic voting machines EVMs outside some polling booths in Amritsar during the municipal corporation elections held in the state yesterday.

The police have set up a technical team to conduct the inquiry and the returning officer has recommended a repoll in the four booths concerned.

Police found cellphones and several laptops from a person rounded up from near the booths. Said Amritsar Police Commissioner R P Mittal: Its too complicated. Its a state election commission issue. We cannot say at this stage if the hacking was successful or not.

The EVMs used in these elections are the ones used during parliamentary and assembly polls. Some Opposition parties have alleged the machines are not foolproof but the EC has several times reiterated that all checks and balances are in place.

On Sunday,the complainant,Raj Kumar Jolly,an SAD candidate from ward 3,told the police that the alleged hacker,operating from a small photo studio,created a wireless network outside the polling station and was monitoring activity in the booths using hidden cameras. He alleged that the hacker was able to infiltrate the system. Mittal along with ACP Harjit Singh rushed to the spot and arrested the alleged hacker. The result of the polling stations have been withheld.

The police has reported that the technical team is likely to take some time to find out what happened, said Manmohan Singh Kang,the returning officer. We have received the returning officers report regarding the alleged hacking. A decision is yet to be taken on repolling, said M L Sharma,Secretary to the commission.

Congress alleges state terror
New Delhi: Following the partys drubbing in municipal polls in Punjab,the Congress on Monday alleged that the ruling SAD-BJP combine had unleashed unprecedented state terror and time had come to introspect whether these elections should be left at the tender mercy of the state government and the state Election Commission. There was no election in Punjab. It was state terror,it was intimidation and coercion by way of the use of administrative machinery to completely subvert the democratic process. Every newspaper in Punjab has reported on the front page the levels of violence and intimidation which have taken place across the state. So,I think the time has come for everybody to seriously reflect that if these elections are going to be left at the tender mercies of the state government and State Election Commissions which are conspicuous by their absence rather than their presence, said Congress spokesman Manish Tewari,who is also an MP from Punjab.

ENS