AAP seeks details on EC’s EVM challenge

Terms the Election Commission’s ‘challenge’ an eyewash, seeks to change the motherboard or chip of EVMs.

A former dreaded member of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), who had become a symbol of terror in Maoist-infested Jharkhand, is said to have surrendered.

Kundan Pahan, a Most Wanted Maoist, who was carrying a bounty of Rs 15 lakh on his head, has surrendered before the Jharkhand Police, said sources. He was allegedly involved in about 120 cases, including murder of MLA & MP and brutal, Taliban-style beheading of intelligence officer Francis Induwar. The development comes soon after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting in the national capital with 10 chief ministers of Maoist-invested states to deal with the menace and ways to make surrender policy attractive.

The police, however, have neither confirmed nor denied his surrender. However, according to sources, the Jharkhand Police is likely to announce it on Sunday and produce him. Jharkhand Police spokesperson R.K. Mallick could not be contacted for his version.

Pahan was a notorious Maoist commander, who first came to limelight in 2008 when he looted Rs 5 crore from the cash van of ICICI Bank in March and execution of the then JDU MLA Ramesh Singh Munda in July. He was also allegedly involved a landmine blast, killing six police personnel, including a DSP Pramod Kumar.

In 2009, he beheaded the intelligence officer Induwar, a tribal, and placed his head about 10 feet away from the body on NH 33, which led to widespread outrage against the Maoists. It was after this incident that the Centre launched an all-out war against the Maoists in the region. At that time, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had visited the bereaved family of Induwar to offer his condolences.

Pahan was also accused of killing five police personnel. He group was also said to be behind the ghastly murder of Sunil Mahto, the then Jamshedpur MP, in 2007.

This is to be noted that another dreaded Maoist Nakul Yadav, who also carried a reward of Rs 15 lakh, surrendered about a month ago. However, the police officially announced it this month. Kundan Pahan, alias Vikas Pahan, was expelled from the CPI (Maoist) in 2014 as he was “not adhering” to the party guidelines. He joined the outfit allegedly to sort out a family property dispute. One of his brothers, Dimba Pahan, had also surrendered in January this year, while his another brother Shyam Pahan was arrested by Haryana police in February. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has termed the Election Commission’s ( EC) statement of conducting a “challenge” to prove that Electronic Voting Machines ( EVM) can be hacked an “eyewash” and stated that the EC has not announced any details on how the “challenge” will be conducted.

Senior AAP party leader and spokesperson Alka Lamba said that the Election Commission, while interacting with representatives of various political parties on Friday, did not mention any specifics regarding when or where will political parties be allowed to demonstrate that EVMs can be tampered.

“The EC has just given an ambiguous statement, in which it has called for political parties to show that the recently used EVMs were tampered. However, it is very difficult to prove that the EVMs that were used in the recently held elections were tampered. The EC should give us an opportunity to let us change the motherboard or the chip of the EVMs as was demonstrated by Saurabh Bhardwaj ( AAP MLA) in the Delhi Assembly earlier this week. There are several ways to hack the EVMs and we should be given an opportunity to show how it can be done. If we fail, we will be more than happy,” Lamba told The Sunday Guardian.

The same statement was reiterated by another AAP leader and former minister Somnath Bharti.

“The EC on Friday did not even tell us about any specifics as to how the political parties will be able to use the EVMs to prove that they can be tampered. Will they give us their own machines? Will we be able to take the machines out of the complex or the EC will just show us a demonstration? These are the questions that remain unanswered,” Bharti told The Sunday Guardian.

The AAP has, however, hailed the decision of the EC to use VVPAT (voter verified paper audit trail) for all further elections.

“It is a victory for us and we see it as a welcome step which is a way towards a healthy democracy,” he stated. Apart from the demand for a “hackathon”, the AAP has also asked that the EC should allow technical experts and students of IITs access to EVM so that they can show how the EVMs can be hacked.

The party has also requested the EC that in the future, at least 25% of the VVPATs’ slip generated in every future election should be allowed to be counted by the political parties so that they can tally it with the actual result.