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EC Orders FIRs Against 5 West Bengal Poll Officials Over Voter Roll Manipulation

The poll body moved to enforce criminal action after West Bengal failed to file cases despite suspending the accused in August.

Overview

  • The Election Commission directed the West Bengal CEO and district election officers to immediately register FIRs and submit compliance reports.
  • Those named include EROs Debottam Dutta Chowdhury and Biplab Sarkar, AEROs Tathagata Mondal and Sudipta Das, and data entry operator Surajit Halder in Baruipur East and Moyna.
  • Audits found ERO Net credentials and OTPs were shared with unauthorised users, enabling fictitious additions to the rolls, with verification lapses also flagged.
  • FIRs are to be lodged under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Information Technology Act, 2000.
  • Separately, the state CEO sought a report from South 24-Parganas after Abhishek Banerjee cited living voters marked dead, as officials reported logical discrepancies dropping to about 9.4 million after scrutiny.