Presiding office attacked, ARO hides incident without filing case, viral video on social media

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, April 28, 2024

A BJP leader of North Tripura district abused and manhandled a presiding officer during the polling inside the polling station. It is allagged that the BJP leader not only did beat the presiding officer, but his colleagues also publicly beat the presiding officer in front of hundreds of people. One such video has also gone viral on social media. Security personnel of central forces were present at the spot but did not arrest the attackers.

Although the presiding officer wanted to file a complaint with the police station, the sub-divisional magistrate (ARO) of Dharmanagar and other election officers did not give permission to the presiding officer to file FIR. This created intense panic and tension among the poll workers.

The incident took place on April 26 at Polling Station No. 22 of Bagbasa Assembly Constituency during the polling for East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency.

According to the information received, some voters went to the polling station without identity card and were turned away by the presiding officer. The presiding officer said that the person who went to the polling station with the voter slip must have a photo identity card of that name. He informed the voters who do not have voter ID card as per the guidelines of Election Commission, they can vote with alternative photo ID card without any problem. And presiding officer said that he will not allow anyone to vote without any photo identity card. As a result of this dispute, the district president of BJP, Kajal Das, illegally entered the booth with 10-15 people who were not voters of this booth and sent a message to the presiding officer. Since the district president of the nationalist party had come, the presiding officer came out to listen to him. But as soon as he came outside the polling station, Kajal Das allagedly grabbed his hair and dragged him into the field and started beating him. He himself first pulled the presiding officer to the field by holding a fistful of hair. Such behavior of the district president and his brutal attitude spread panic among the hundreds of voters present. After a few minutes of beating, when the commotion started, the CRPF jawans came running. They rescued the presiding officer and took him to the booth. Despite such incidents in the open, the Election Department has not filed any case against the accused leader.