A 17-Year Teenager Got Arrested For Voting 8 Times to BJP

In Uttar Pradesh, the Etah Administration registered an FIR and arrested a 17-year teenager for voting multiple times to BJP from different polling booths in the Farrukhabad parliamentary constituency, which he himself has recorded in his Camera while casting his vote, which later got viral and was shared by Samajwadi party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on social media. The polling in Farrukhabad took place on 13th May and after investigation the authenticity of the viral clip the teenager got identified and was arrested on Sunday evening.

In the viral clip, the teenager was seen counting each time while pressing the button of Kamal/Lotus symbol (BJP) and showing different ID cards at the interval in the video. Overall, 8 times he pressed the Kamal button on the EVM Machine. Samajwadi party chief Akhilesh Yadav posted this 2 min 19 sec video and commented, "If the Election commission (EC) feels this is wrong, they should definitely take some strict action..."

 According to the Election commission rules and regulations, an Indian citizen who is above Eighteen years of age can cast their vote only to an individual party and not multiple time. So, this act of an underage teenager voting 8 times violates the Election commission rules.

As per the investigation the Uttar Pradesh chief election officer Navdeep Rinwa said, that the underage voter in the viral video is the son of a gram Pradhan of a village in Etah district of UP. He said, "An FIR is been registered under sections 171-F and 419 of IPC, and 128, 132 and 136 of the Representation of people act, 1951 at Nayagaon police station in Etah district", he said.

As per the sources, the village officials said that some polling agents took the gram Pradhan's son to the nearby booth before the voting began. "To participate in the EVM machine inspection/ randomisation." "My son pressed the ballot unit several times, shot the video and later shared it.”, he said.

Priya Chauhan