The first phase of voting for the 2024 General elections took place on April 19. Soon after, a video claiming to show BJP workers stealing the VVPAT slips attached to the EVMs, started making the rounds on social media.
The post reads: भाजपा के लोग ईवीएम की पर्ची चुराते हुए (BJP workers stealing EVM slips)
Here’s the link to the above post (archive).
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the post, and found it to be misleading.
While looking for similar posts on Facebook, we found that the same video went viral in 2022 during the Gujarat Assembly elections.
Searching further, we came across an X post by the District Magistrate and Collector of Bhavnagar, D.K. Parekh, dated December 15, 2022. In the post, he had clarified that as per ECI instructions, after the counting is done the verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips are sealed in a black envelope so that the VVPATs can be again used in further elections.’ In the post, he also explained this process is videographed and a copy is kept in the strongroom and one with the DEO concerned.
@rakeshfilm pic.twitter.com/1Q4KcXEZzd
— Collector & District Magistrate, Bhavnagar (@Collectorbhav) December 15, 2022
We also found a circular by the ECI, titled: Removal of VVPAT slips from VVPATs after completion of counting of votes, that explains this process. A part of the circular reads: “The VVPAT paper slips shall be taken out from the drop box of VVPAT and kept in a paper envelope made of thick black paper polling station wise; it shall be sealed using red wax with the bilingual secret seal of the Commission provided to the Returning Officer. If more than one VVPAT was used in a particular polling station, the VVPAT slips taken out from each VVPAT slips should be kept in the separate envelope.”
Thus, from the above fact check, it is clear that the video is old and shared with misleading claims.
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