HC upholds election of ex-DMK minister

The Madras High Court today upheld the election of former DMK minister, E V Velu, from Tiruvannamalai assembly constituency in May, 2011, saying his AIADMK rival had failed to prove that either the electronic voting machines were tampered with or undue pressure was brought on polling officials to secure victory.
Dismissing the election petition of AIADMK's S Ramachandran, Justice M Venugopal said "he has failed to establish that Velu indulged in corrupt practices and also not substantiated by necessary material facts and evidence brought on record before this court. He failed to prove that Velu had tampered with the electronic voting machines with the connivance of election officials."

Velu had won the election by a margin of 5,126 votes.
Challenging this, Ramachandran alleged that the DMK functionary had influenced polling officials as he was the state cabinet minister besides manipulating the EVMs.
In his order, Justice Venugopal also pointed out that after the polling was over, the voting machines and controlling units were brought to the counting centre and kept under 24-hour police protection. Also, there were no complaints from Ramachandran of any deficiency in protection for safeguarding the voting machines, he said.