Mumbai poll official refutes news on mobile phone-EVM link, calls it false

A poll official on Sunday said an EVM was a standalone system that does not need an OTP to unlock it.

Vandana Suryavanshi, returning officer of Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency, was reacting to a report in Mid-day newspaper about a kin of Ravindra Waikar, the Shiv Sena candidate who emerged victorious there by a wafer thin margin of 48 votes, using a mobile phone connected to an EVM during vote counting on June 4. "The EVM is a standalone system and there is no need for an OTP to unlock it. We have issued notice to Mod-day newspaper under sections 499, 505 of the Indian Penal Code for defamation and spreading false news," Suryavanshi said in a press conference on Sunday. Mangesh Pandilkar, brother-in-law of Waikar was booked on Wednesday for allegedly using a mobile phone at a counting centre on June 4, when results of the general elections were announced, a police official said on Saturday. The Vanrai police station official said the case was registered for Pandlikar's his