TN official admits to tampering with poll result

The Returning Officer (RO) attached to T Kallupatti panchayat in Madurai district admitted he had changed the civic poll result for Ward 10 there in favour of the DMK candidate due to the pressure exerted by the local ruling party functionaries. The RO made the admission when an independent candidate challenged the declaration of the RO made on February 22 came up for hearing before the  bench Madras high court. According to the petitioner, she and her opponent R Subbulakshmi of the DMK had secured an equal number of votes in the elections on February 19. Hence, a lot was conducted to decide the issue, which was videographed. Though the lot went in her favour, the election officer declared Subbulakshmi as elected. When the matter came up for hearing, the bench called for the video clippings of the conduct of the lot. Accordingly, the video clippings were produced and the bench found that the election officer had tampered with the result.