Polling officer arrested for withdrawing money from voters’ bank a/cs

PATNA: Senior officials of Munger were taken aback when some voters, who had exercised their franchise in the panchayat election on Monday, complained that money was withdrawn from their bank accounts after they submitted their Aadhaar numbers and gave thumb impression at polling booth number 145 at Charaun village in the district.Munger sadar sub-divisional officer (SDO) Khushboo Gupta said she received complaints from at least seven voters about withdrawal of money from their bank accounts. “These people were in for a shock after receiving messages on their cellphones about withdrawal of money from their bank accounts,” she added.Police officers present at the booth swung into action and arrested a polling staff, Ravi Kumar Singh. During interrogation, he confessed to his involvement in the crime and said he had withdrawn the money from the voters’ bank accounts with the help of a mobile application.Ravi, incharge of a customer service point (CSP) of a bank, said he used to collect thumb impressions of the voters twice – one for casting their votes and another for withdrawal of money. Ravi is a resident of Tilbaria police station under Haveli Kharagpur sub-division in the district.Ravi was deployed at the polling booth to handle biometric system being used at polling booths to avoid rigging. Initial investigations revealed that Rs 36,000 was withdrawn from the bank accounts of different voters. Panchayat election was held in 53 blocks spread over 35 districts in the state on Monday in the ninth phase. The police detained 347 people on charges of attempting to disturb the poll process in this phase.