Amidst allegations of stolen Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in Uttar Pradesh, the shocking death of a woman working in the webcam company responsible for polling booths had added further fuel to the conspiracy fires. Her body was found inside her hotel room in Azamgarh and police say that the woman died by suicide.
The woman’s sister Sangeeta discovered her body on March 7, after breaking into the room. The two women had come to the area for webcasting work during elections. Speaking to both local media and the police, she said the deceased was suffering from a clinical disorder.
Accordingly, the police said that the woman died by suicide, with the post mortem report stating asphyxiation as the cause of death.
“I personally looked at the CCTV footage in the hotel room and saw that nobody entered the woman’s room after the last time she did. We did not find any sinister elements in this incident,” Azamgarh SHO D K Srivastav told SabrangIndia. When asked about the death’s possible connection to the EVM scam, the police refused to comment on “politically-motivated accusations”.
Nonetheless, the news drew severe criticism from people about the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) handling of the polling process.
If something is not seriously wrong wth the @ECISVEEP is handling the UP/Varanasi/Purvanchal/Azamgarh polls, this shd raise serious ques. A woman worker of a webcam cos resp for election booths (Azamgarh) found dead in a hotel room. #ECI #UPElections2022https://t.co/t7b5ynyZbr
— Teesta Setalvad (@TeestaSetalvad) March 9, 2022
Before the cause of death was revealed via the post mortem report on Tuesday evening, the Samajwadi Party (SP) called the death ‘an indicator of a larger conspiracy’ and called for a thorough investigation by the police.
— AZAMGARH POLICE (@azamgarhpolice) March 8, 2022
This alludes to SP leader Akhilesh Yadav’s speech on the intervening night between March 8 and March 9 accusing the state government of ‘stealing’ Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), ahead of counting on March 10. Viral videos on social media show how people in Varanasi caught a truck carrying EVMs in gunny bags. According to reports, the truck was caught but two other similar trucks allegedly escaped. The ECI and DM claimed that the EVMs were being taken to a training venue where election officials were to be trained a day before counting day.
Meanwhile, officials are mum about the death of the webcam company woman, whose death is being connected to the EVM scam. During the press conference, Yadav asked party workers to keep a constant vigil on the places where EVMs are kept.
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