Jodhpur: Authorities have suspended a Polytechnic College teacher and terminated the services of a home guard after a reserve Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) went missing in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan during the recently held assembly elections, official sources said. Assembly elections were held across the state on 25 November.
Sources said that a reserve EVM allotted to a control unit was reported missing from car of a sector officer of the Jodhpur assembly constituency. On the instructions of the Election Commission, District Collector and Election Officer Himanshu Gupta took cognizance of this incident and suspended Polytechnic College teacher Sector Officer Pankaj Jakhar with immediate effect, sources said.
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Besides, the services of the home guard accompanying him have also been terminated, they added. An official said that on the night of 25th November, the election day when the Sector Officer did not find the EVM in his vehicle, a case of missing EVM was registered on his behalf at the Udaymandir police station.
It is learnt that the suspended Sector Officer Pankaj Jakhar was overseeing the voting at the polling stations set up at PWD office and St. Patrick's School. The missing machine was not used and was in the reserve from 5 am to 8 pm on the polling day, but when the machine had to be returned to the Polytechnic College at night, it went missing from Jakhar's car.
Later, Returning Officer of Jodhpur City Assembly Champalal brought this to the notice of District Election Officer, who suspended the Sector Officer and terminated the home guard on the instructions of the State Electoral Officer, Himanshu Gupta for dereliction of duties.
