Couldn't resist rigging in Bengal panchayat polls due to life threat: Presiding officer to Calcutta High Court

Kolkata: A presiding officer in the recently-concluded panchayat polls in West Bengal on Friday admitted before the Calcutta High Court that he was unable to prevent election malpractices due to threat to his life.

Sumit Pande, a teacher with a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Kolkata, who was presiding officer at an election booth in Beldanga-II block in Murshidabad district made the admission in an affidavit to the single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha.

The bench was hearing a CPI(M) candidate Nasima Begum's plea seeking re-election.

Earlier, Justice Sinha asked Pande, who was the presiding officer at a booth, to file what happened on the polling day in an affidavit.

In the affidavit, Pande said, "miscreants took total control of the booth where he was a presiding officer by 12 noon. They broke the CCTV camera, snatched ballot papers and started mass stamping on a particular symbol.

Pande also said that throughout that period, the miscreants constantly threatened the polling officers including him of dire consequences in case of any resistance.

He said mobile phones of polling officers were snatched so that they cannot contact the sector office to report the incident, he said in the affidavit.

After the malpractices were over and ballot boxes were sealed, the miscreants forced him to write in the report that the polling process was peaceful.

A total of 55 persons were killed in election-related violence in the recently-concluded polls for the three- tier panchayat system in the state.