EC to Telangana high court: Ready to break locks to submit EVM data

HYDERABAD: Stung by the row over missing keys of two strong rooms containing files and EVM data of 2018 Dharmapuri assembly election dispute, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday assured the Telangana high court that it would order an inquiry. It also expressed readiness to break open the two locks and submit the files to court.
After a hearing on Tuesday, Justice K Laxman gave defeated Congress candidate Adluri Laxman Kumar 24 hours to convey his stand on breaking of the two locks and adjourned the case till Wednesday.
It may be recalled that Laxman had approached the HC citing irregularities in counting of votes soon after losing to Koppula Eshwar in 2018 by a wafer-thin margin of 441 votes.
All EVMs and VVPAT materials were later stored in three strongrooms in VRK engineering college at Nookapalli in Jagtial.
On Monday, when ECI officials arrived to recover the files to submit it to the court, they could not open two strongrooms due to the two missing keys. The numbers on the locks did not match the keys with the officials. When the ECI officials offered to break the locks, Laxman objected to it and demanded that the court be informed first.
During the hearing on Tuesday, the judge expressed his dissatisfaction over the delay being caused by the officials.
"The apex court has asked us to decide all such issues within six months. This court passed an order a week ago to verify strongroom record and convey the details. The job has not been done till now," the judge said. Senior counsel Avinash Desai, who appeared for the ECI, said, "We are ready to break open the locks and furnish the required files before the court, but the Congress candidate is objecting to the process."
When the judge queried the Congress candidate, his counsel Dharmesh Jaiswal said that he would file a counter conveying his views within 24 hours.