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Election Commission Orders FIRs Over Alleged Voter-Roll Manipulation in West Bengal

The poll body moved to enforce FIRs after August suspensions produced no police cases, directing use of election, criminal, plus IT statutes.

Overview

  • The Election Commission instructed West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer and district election officers to immediately register FIRs and submit a compliance report.
  • Officials are accused of sharing login credentials and OTPs for the voter database, enabling the illegal addition of names and breaching data-security rules.
  • The alleged irregularities relate to voter-roll work in Baruipur Purba (South 24-Parganas) and Moyna (East Midnapore) involving EROs Debottam Dutta Choudhury and Biplab Sarkar, and AEROs Tathagata Mondal and Sudipta Das.
  • Reports differ on whether FIRs are sought against four officers or five personnel including a data-entry operator, with one outlet identifying the operator as Surajit Halder.
  • The state suspended the officials in August after an earlier ECI directive but did not file FIRs; there was no immediate public response from the West Bengal government to the latest order.