Disservice to officers to say EVMs in their custody get hacked: IPS officer D Roopa

Amid ongoing allegations about tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) by several Opposition parties, senior IPS officer D Roopa on Wednesday said that it's a "disservice" to officers to say that EVMs in their custody were hacked.

"Hacking EVMs is impossible. All IAS officers and state administrative services officers across the country know that EVMs can't be hacked. During polls, they work as Returning Officers, Assistant ROs. Will all of them jeopardise their jobs by allowing hacking? Can all be bought over," Roopa tweeted.

"We are forgetting the fact that elections are conducted by bureaucratic machinery. It is a disservice to officers to say EVMs in their custody get hacked. Timeframe -- prior, during, after polls till results, EVMs remain in officers' custody. Can all officers all over the country get compromised," she added.

Her comments over the issue of EVM hacking comes a day after leaders of 22 major opposition parties on Tuesday met the Election Commission (EC) and demanded that the VVPAT of an entire assembly segment should be counted even if one of the five samples does not match the EVM.

They also demanded that the EVM-VVPAT tally should be done at the beginning of the process of counting.

On May 7, the Supreme Court had turned down a review plea filed by 21 opposition parties seeking a direction to the EC to increase random physical verification of VVPAT from five to at least 50 per cent of EVMs.

The seven-phased Lok Sabha elections in India were held from April 11 to May 19. The result will be announced on Thursday.