Hyderabad: Responding to a viral video with claims of rigging in a polling booth in Bahadurpura in the recently held Lok Sabha elections on May 13, the chief electoral officer, Telangana termed it “fake”.
“A video clip which shows the inside of a polling station with the Presiding Officer (wearing a surgical mask) is doing rounds on social media. The clip shows a person (wearing a striped dark blue round collar T shirt) standing next to a compartment. People are going into the compartment and coming out, while the person (in the blue striped T shirt) guides the persons going inside the compartment. A beep sound, like that of an EVM, is heard every time a person exits the compartment. It is being claimed that this video is from Bahadurpura AC of Hyderabad PC, and it shows rigging in the polling station. It is hereby pointed out that this is an OLD VIDEO, NOT linked to the Parliamentary election in Telangana or to any other election in Telangana,” Telangana CEO said in a press release.
“Our attempts to go into the history of the video revealed that this video was shared on the YouTube channel TV9 Bangla, on 27th February 2022,” the release further said, adding the link to the original video.
The CEO added that the poll process in the state was conducted in a free and fair manner.
“Thus, it can be clearly seen that the video in question is neither from Telangana nor does it pertain to either the Assembly election or parliament election in Telangana. Further, if one listens to the audio carefully, it is clear that the language being spoken in the video is not Telugu,” it stated.
