Madurai Collector transferred over strongroom breach

The unauthorised entry of a woman Tahsildar into a document storage room adjacent to the strong room housing EVMs of the Madurai Parliamentary Constituency took a different turn on Saturday with the Election Commission (EC) transferring the District Collector S Natarajan, who was the Returning Officer and Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) of Madurai West Assembly segment M Guru Chandran.

Interestingly, the transfer transpired even as a division bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad was hearing the plea moved by Su. Venkatesan, CPI(M) candidate for Madurai Lok Sabha elections, seeking three interim prayers, which included the Collector’s transfer as he failed to properly handle the gross security lapse.

The bench, in its order, held that when we were inclined to direct the EC to transfer the RO, ARO, Personal assistant to the District Collector, Mohandas, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and such other policemen who allowed the Tahsildar Samboornam and others to enter into the store room, the counsel produced a letter dated April 27 ordering the transfer of both the officials.

However, the bench also held, “There is absolutely no action against the personal assistant (General) who had caused the incident, which caused breach of secrecy and security, as per the provisions of the election laws and instructions issued.”

Similarly, there is no action against the ACP (Crime) in charge of election duty and the policemen who allowed Samboornam and others to enter the store room and remain there for three hours, the bench said and directed EC to initiate disciplinary action or prosecution against the Personal Assistant (general) to the Collector and initiate action against others, who were involved and named by the enquiry officer.

Earlier, during the hearing, the bench raised pointed questions as to who instructed the PA to assign the task of entering the store room, removing certain documents and photocopying the same at a shop outside the campus despite claims of three-tier security.