An offence has been registered against a Congress worker for filming a video of his own voting and uploading it on a social media platform. The Mauda police, which comes under the Ramtek Lok Sabha seat, have registered the case against Congress worker, Sonam Rajesh Shravankar (23), a resident of Ward No. 1, Marodi village in Mauda tehsil of Nagpur district. According to the police, Shravankar was appointed as the election representative of the Congress party at voting center no. 327, Uccha Prathamik Shala, Marodi, Mauda. On Friday, Shravankar was present as an election representative. At 5 pm, she went to cast his vote through the electronic voting machine and filmed a video of the same. The incident came to light when he uploaded the video of his voting on social media and same was being discussed by the villagers. The election officials were promptly informed by workers of other political parties about illegal act of the Congress worker.

 

Filming of videos is prohibited at polling stations as per the rules and hence the election officials took strong note of his actions. Upon the complaint of Polling Station In-charge Shrikant Madhukar Petkar, a resident of Nagpur, the Mauda police have registered a case under Sections 188, 176 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 128 of the Representation of the People Act. With advent of social media, people go to any length to garner few likes or portray themselves as 'hero' and hence revert to such tactics.

 

However in such process the sanctity of election process gets violated. It's also surprising that a voter was able to carry the mobile handset to the electronic voting machine (EVM) where he or she has to press the button against name and symbol of candidate to exercise their franchise. As per practice, the election official at the booth direct the voter to deposit their mobile handset before allowing them to press the button on EVM as a safeguard against misuse or to click pictures that also violates secrecy of voting process. Hence it's matter of investigation for police to find as to how the accused was able to pull of the stunt without attracting attention of polling agents of other political parties and also the security personnel and election officials on duty at the said booth where the violation occurred.