Mumbai | Shinde Sena MP's brother-in-law booked for 'using phone to unlock EVM'

The Mumbai police have booked Mangesh Pandilkar, the brother-in-law of newly elected Mumbai North West Lok Sabha MP Ravindra Waikar, for allegedly using a mobile phone at a counting centre on June 4, the day when the Lok Sabha elections results were announced.

The MP’s relative reportedly used the mobile phone inside the counting centre in the Goregaon area in Mumbai. Police sources also said the phone was used to generate a One-Time Password (OTP) to unlock an electronic voting machine (EVM) at the counting centre.

Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) MP Waikar defeated Amol Gajanan Kirtikar of Shiv Sena (UBT) by just 48 votes in the Mumbai North West seat. This outcome sparked a controversy, with Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray saying that his party would challenge the result.

EC official booked

The election in the constituency has been mired in controversy as the police and the Election Commission received complaints from many candidates contesting from the seat after the result was declared. Notably, the police also booked an Election Commission employee for allegedly handing over the mobile phone to Pandilkar.

Sources said Dinesh Gurav, the poll officer, had the phone that generates an OTP needed to unlock an EVM. As per norms, only he should have used the phone and not anyone else.

Police said they have recorded the statements of Pandilkar and the Election Commission official whose phone was used. The phone may have been used to generate the OTP, which is being investigated by the police, sources said. The phone was also used to handle data and calls were also made, they said.

The police suspect that the phone was being used by Pandilkar from morning to 4:30 pm when the candidates of the two Sena factions were locked in a keen contest in the Mumbai North West seat, sources said. Police said Pandilkar admitted to making calls from the phone.

Accessing call records

Three teams of Mumbai police were constituted to probe into the matter and they will also investigate the CCTV given by the Election Commission, which could play a key role in bringing out details about the controversy.

Sources said that the police will access the call records from the mobile phone used in the generation of OTP after getting details about the mobile number used for calling on that device.

The police will investigate how many calls were made and OTPs were received on the phone, which was seized. They will also probe whether calls were received on that phone.

The controversy came close on the heels of tech billionaire Elon Musk flagging concerns about EVMs. He suggested that they should be eliminated due to the potential risk of being hacked by humans or Artificial Intelligence, even if the risk is minimal.

Rahul dubs EVMs ‘black box’

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said EVMs in India are a “black box” which nobody is allowed to scrutinise, and asserted that “serious concerns” are being raised about transparency in India's electoral process.

“Democracy ends up becoming a sham and prone to fraud when institutions lack accountability,” Rahul said and tagged a media report about this incident in Mumbai.

The former Congress president also tagged the post on X by Elon Musk in which he talked about eliminating EVMs.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav also waded into the controversy and reiterated his demand to hold future elections using ballot papers.

“Technology is meant to solve problems. If it becomes the cause of problems, its use should be stopped. Today, when fears of EVM tampering are being expressed in many elections across the world and the world's renowned technology experts are openly writing about its dangers, what is the reason behind the insistence on using EVMs?” he tweeted in Hindi.

The Opposition parties have been raising concerns over EVMs for some time now and had demanded a 100 per cent count of the VVPAT slips which was not allowed.