Congress Seeks Inquiry Into Missing Strong Room Key Case

The Telangana unit of the Congress today lodged a complaint with the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) in the strong room lock key missing incident that took place in Jagtial district.

It urged the ECI to conduct an inquiry into it by appointing an officer of the Commission, and take action against the responsible persons.

TPCC Senior Vice President G Niranjan wrote an open letter to the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar about the issue. In his letter, he told the CEC that Congress candidate for the Dharmapuri Assembly constituency in the 2018 Assembly elections A Laxman Kumar had sought a recounting of the votes as he had lost the election by a mere 441 votes.

He said that the returning officer of the constituency however declared the BRS candidate Koppula Eshwar as elected despite the request made by Laxman Kumar.

Niranjan said that Kumar then approached Telangana High Court and urged it issue orders for a recounting of the votes. Responding to the petition of the Congress leader, the High Court asked the officials concerned to submit all the details of the counting including the 17A and 17C documents, and the CC footage related to the counting of the votes.

Niranjan told the CEC that the EVMs and the election documents were kept in three strong rooms located in VRK Engineering College of Malyal mandal from Jagtial district, and that a team of officials of the district led by the district Collector S K Yasmin Basha tried to open the locks of the strong rooms, but could open the locks of only one strong room.

The officials said that they were not able to open the remaining two strong rooms as they had lost the keys of the lock, and Laxman Kumar stopped the officials from breaking open the locks when the officials tried to do that, Niranjan said.

Niranjan lamented that the officials concerned showed grave negligence in discharging their duties including the safe-keeping of the keys of the locks of the strong rooms.

He told the CEC that the ruling party candidate, who was declared winner from the constituency, was now a cabinet minister, and urged the CEC to appoint an officer to carry out an in-depth inquiry into the issue and punish the culprits.