As five Indian states – Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand – gear up for upcoming assembly elections, a news clip stating that Congress and Aam Aap Party accused BJP of EVM hacking leading to suspension of 19 officers has started making rounds on social media.
The video shows a BJP slip coming out during a dummy trial of the EVM machine. The video is being shared with a link to the upcoming polls.
The video is being shared with a Hindi caption that reads, “लो जी कर दिया बीजेपी ने खेला वोटिंग मशीन द्वारा बीजेपी की ही पर्ची निकलने पर हुआ बबाल अब छल करके जीतना चाहती है बीजेपी सरकार”
(English translation: See, BJP tampered with a voting machine, there was chaos as a slip of BJP was being withdrawn. Now BJP government wants to win by cheating.)
The link to the post can be seen here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile did a fact-check and found the claim to be misleading.
As the viral report mentioned that the incident is from Bhind, we ran a keyword search and found the same video was uploaded on the YouTube channel of ABP on April 1, 2017, with a title that read, “EVM Controversy: SP, Collector of Bhind removed.”
Bhind, a city in Madhya Pradesh, is NOT going to polls now.
The Times of India also reported about the incident on April 2, 2017. The report suggested, that a controversial video of a dummy test of an electronic voting machine (EVM) in Bhind went viral ahead of a byelection. After the viral video, the Madhya Pradesh government removed the district collector and the SP and initiated action against 19 others.
Later a report by Indian Express on April 8, 2017, suggested that clean chit was given to the EVM and VVPAT machines used during a demonstration exercise at Bhind in Madhya Pradesh.
Thus, it is clear that an old video report has gone viral on social media with a misleading claim inking it to upcoming assembly elections in five states.
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