Reliance Jio denies men held outside Bastar EVM stronghold are their employees

Reliance Jio on Friday refuted contentions that the men detained outside an EVM strong room in Chhattisgarh's Bastar on Thursday were their employees.

The telecommunications firm's spokesperson said, "We wish to clarify that the three men detained are not employees of Reliance Jio. On 6th December, upon an outage reported with one of our mobile tower located at the Mahila Polytechnic College Jagdalpur, we understand that our vendors' NDS (New Distinct Services) and Delta Power Solutions Pvt. Limited sent their technicians to the site to carry out regular maintenance work."

"We further understand that these technicians were solely carrying out their maintenance work near the tower and were not present in or near the strong room as reported," the spokesperson clarified.

Following the detention of the two men on Thursday, police said that they are investigating into the incident and will only be able to throw more light upon the issue following their probe, adding that the two claimed to be employed with Jio.

The police further stated yesterday that they were looking for ID cards for the two workers and that it is not possible to enter the strong rooms without the same.

Tensions rise across the five states (Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram) that went to polls in November and December as the December 11 judgement day inches closer. Chhattisgarh went to polls in a two phased elections last month.