(This story originally appeared in on Mar 1, 2018)

BENGALURU: The Karnataka Election Commission (EC) has announced that those alleging hacking of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) will be sentenced to six months in jail if they fail to prove their charge.

The announcement was made by the state's EC chief Sanjeev Kumar during a press meet.

"EVM and voter verifiable paper audit trail ( VVPAT ) cannot be tampered with in any manner. Some sections of the media are creating a buzz over this. The EC considers it a serious issue. If any incorrect news is published or if anybody spreads rumours, the EC will register a criminal defamation case," Kumar said.

The election body's move is targetted at warding off rumours and apprehension about EVMs.

Some media reports had alleged that EVMs had been brought in from Gujarat and were being tampered with to favour the BJP.

"It is common to bring EVMs from other states. Punjab EVMs had been used in Gujarat elections too," said Kumar rebutting the allegations.

Additionally, 85,650 Ballot Unit (BU) and 66,700 Control Unit (CU) EVMs have been brought in for the upcoming Assembly polls in Karnataka from Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

The Supreme Court's direction has made the installation of VVPATs - a mechanism to provide feedback to voters using a ballot-less voting system - mandatory this time.

Specifically, 73,850 VVPATs are required for the state Assembly election.

60,700 VVPATs (M3 model) have been made in Bengaluru's BEL, while 1,300 come from Gujarat.

"BEL has been asked to produce the rest," Kumar shared.

Section 49M of the 'Conduct of Elections Rules' stipulates that the voter has the right to question the reliability of VVPATs.

The machine will give the voter information about his or her vote for about 7 seconds. If the voter finds anything suspicious, he or she can take the matter to court. In case the matter cannot be proven, action will be taken under Section 177 of the IPC, which may lead to a six-month sentence.

Read this story in Kannada

