An Aam Aadmi Party delegation met the chief election commissioner in New Delhi on Tuesday seeking an inquiry into an alleged security breach involving the electronic voting machines used in the Punjab Assembly elections, PTI reported. AAP leaders submitted a memorandum in which they alleged that the strongrooms where the EVMs were kept had been entered without authorisation.

In the memorandum, the leaders cited a May 2015 notification by the Election Commission listing the instructions regarding the storage, verification and the movement of EVMs. Sisodia claimed these norms were had been flouted.

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Sisodia alleged that the returning officer in Patiala district, along with other officials, had entered the strongrooms on the pretext of procuring certain documents. “However, it was found that they were moving the steel boxes in which the EVMs were kept,” Sisodia claimed. He said the delegation has demanded an inquiry into the matter.

However, the district administration had claimed that the EVMs lying on the premises were used in the municipal polls in the state in 2015.

AAP leader Raghav Chadha said the May 2015 notification states that there has to be uninterrupted power supply to strong rooms so that the CCTV cameras are operational the entire time. However, this rule was also violated as some places did not have electricity for three hours in a day, he alleged.

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Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said allegations of the breach was “excessive display of paranoia”. “...It indicated the complete demoralisation in the party in the face of imminent defeat in the recently concluded assembly elections,” Singh said.

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal alleged that officers had entered the strongroom on the pretext of taking some papers, but started removing EVMs. “This is absolutely shocking. Punjab officials trying to remove EVM machines,” he had tweeted on Monday.