An inquiry into a complaint over mismatch between a man’s vote and the slip generated by the Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine in Matiala, West Delhi, has found that officials followed the procedure, Returning Officer Azimul Haque said on Tuesday.
The complainant, Milan Gupta, had posted on Twitter that the machine printed a symbol different from the one he voted for. Upon requesting to file a complaint, he said that officials had discouraged him, telling him that no one had filed a complaint regarding VVPATs in elections across the country till now and that he could go to prison if found wrong.
A declaration signed by Mr. Gupta, under Rule 49MA of Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, states that he would be liable to be punished with imprisonment of six months or a fine of ₹1,000 if his complaint is found incorrect.
A test vote carried out by Mr. Gupta to verify the issue with the VVPAT, however, returned the correct symbol when he pressed the button of a different candidate. He said that he wanted to maintain his ballot as secret. Mr. Gupta claimed that test vote was not mandatory but was made so.
Mr. Haque said that the complainant was liable to be imprisoned. However, a decision on whether action will be taken against him would be taken later.
