An Army jawan was apprehended by the police in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district in Maharashtra after he allegedly demanded Rs 2.5 crore from Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve to tamper with the EVMs, news agency PTI quoted an official as saying.
The incident came to light when Danve, the Leader of Opposition in the state legislative council, lodged a formal complaint with the police.
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The complaint was filed after the accused, Maruti Dhakne (42), demanded funds claiming that he could manipulate electronic voting machines using a chip. The accused further claimed that doing so would favour a specific candidate with more votes, as per the official’s statement on Tuesday, PTI reported.
The accused, a resident of Pathardi in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, is stationed in Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir, police said.
However, police said that the accused made the claim in a bid to clear his debt and has no knowledge about EVMs.
At approximately 4 pm on Tuesday, Dhakne met with the Sena (UBT) leader’s younger brother Rajendra Danve at a hotel near the central bus stand, where the deal was reportedly sealed at Rs 1.5 crore, according to the official.
A team of undercover police officers went to a location based on a tip from Ambadas Danve, where they caught the suspect red-handed as he accepted Rs 1 lakh from Rajendra.
“The accused is facing a huge debt. He did this trick to get out of his debt. He knows nothing about the machine (EVM). We have arrested him and a case has been registered at the Kranti Chowk police station here,” Police Commissioner Manoj Lohiya told media.
The accused has been charged under Sections 420 (cheating) and 511 (attempt to commit offence) of the Indian Penal Code.