The matter over Chhattisgarh unit of the Congress party suspecting tampering of electronic voting machines (EVM) in some districts has now reached the Chhattisgarh High Court.

Congress party’s State  General Secretary Girish Dewangan has filed a writ petition through his Counsel Satish Chandra Verma seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to look into matter of officials of the administration allegedly entering strongrooms in State's Dhamtari district where EVMs are stored. The petition also claims that CCTV cameras at a strong room in Durg were switched off for a few hours.

The next hearing on the matter is scheduled on December 10.

The writ petition seeks the court’s intervention under Article 324, where the Constitution of India, vests Election Commission of India (ECI) with power of superintendence, direction and control of conducting the elections.

The petition seeks court’s directive to the ECI and office of Chief Electoral Officer to ensure free and fair conduct of polls and counting as per the laid norms, said Dewangan, when contacted.

He said that the petition seeks intervention for counting of votes through slips of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine where the suspicion of EVM tampering incidents had been raised and complaints  lodged with ECI and CEO office.”

Complaints were lodged for incidents near the strong rooms at Dhamtari, Durg and Bemetara districts, Dewangan said.

He said that directions were also sought in all the complaints lodged against the officials and employees, political leaders regarding violation of election model code of conduct before the office of CEO but no action has been taken.

Plea has been made for stern action in those cases after probe, if the complaint was found to be true, he said.