Naidu’s ‘expert’ for EC meet turns out to be ‘EVM thief’

NEW DELHI: When the Election Commission agreed to Andhra Pradesh chief minister N

Chandrababu Naidu

’s request on Saturday morning to let an “expert” from his delegation come back for a more technical discussion on EVMs, little did it realise this ‘expert’ was Hari Prasad, a Hyderabad-based researcher arrested in 2010 in a one-of-it’s-kind

EVM

theft case.

While Hari Prasad was part of Naidu’s delegation that met EC in the morning, it was only when his name was given by the Andhra Pradesh resident commissioner while indicating composition of the “TDP expert team” that would meet EC officials at 4 pm, that it rung a bell.

The EC officials ran a quick check and realised this was the same man who has for long been claiming EVMs are not tamper-proof and even stole an EVM to prove this with the help of some foreign experts.

EC’s doubts were confirmed when Hari Prasad arrived with a member of TDP legal cell for the 4 pm discussion with deputy election commissioner Sudeep Jain and Prof Emeritus at IIT D T Shahani who is on the technical expert committee attached to EC. Soon after he turned up at Jain’s office, officers brought up his criminal past and raised protests, forcing a flustered Hari Prasad and his colleague to leave immediately.

Soon after, EC wrote a stern letter to the president of TDP legal cell asking how Hari Prasad, a “so-called technical expert with these antecedents was allowed to be a part of the delegation..led by...Naidu”.

Pointing to his arrest for EVM theft in 2010, EC wrote: “Whatever may have been the eventual outcome of the investigation, it would be appreciated that such antecedents do not inspire confidence”. It duly attached media reports and photographs of his arrest in 2010.

EC further said though it did not find it appropriate to have any interaction with Hari Prasad, it was ready to do so with any other expert “who does not have similar antecedents”. This was also conveyed to the Andhra Pradesh resident commissioner here.

Hari Prasad was arrested in 2010 for illegally procuring an EVM but later got bail. He has been questioning EVMs since 2009. Hari Prasad had turned up for EVM challenge conducted by EC in 2009 but failed to prove that the machine could be tampered with or hacked.