Laitphlang lodges FIR into illegal conduct of Shillong Club Ltd elections

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJanuary 23, 2022

Shakti Laitphlang, a member of the Shillong Club Ltd has filed an FIR against the manner in which the club’ election was held.

“The illegal and criminal actions have materially affected the elections and its results which requires to be investigated in detail and all persons found responsible ought to be tried as per the law,” Laitphlang said in the complaint lodged with the Sadar police station on January 21. 

Laitphlang of the PUMA store/ Hotel Shaurya Inn had unsuccessfully participated in the elections for the Boards of Members of the Club on November 17, last year. 

The erstwhile Board of Directors of the Club constituted an Election Committee comprising of 4 of its own members namely Chiranjib Choudhury as Chairman, Kailash Verma, Kamaljit Singh Sehdave and Kiron Joshi. 

By a notice dated 29.10.2021 the Election Committee notified an election scheduled for 17.11.2021 – 20.11.2021 vide e-voting and declaration of results was fixed on 20.11.2021.

He said that the conduct of the Election Committee and the Board of Directors to refuse furnishing of information and make the elections immune from transparency and question, has only cemented his suspicions regarding illegalities in the elections. 

“The actions of the Election Committee and especially the conduct of the Administrator establish that they have acted in collusion with some persons/s with a vested interest in the outcome of the elections and have illegally interfered with the elections of the 2021 with the criminal intent of manipulating the election results,” he alleged. 

“Upon further investigation it appears that the earlier Board of Directors had commissioned an agency with the task of designing the e-voting portal for conducting the elections. But despite inquiry the Administrator and the Board have refused to divulge any details. This agency and the Administrator had full access to and control over the portal,” he added.

Laitphlang said that post elections, several members have complained that they were not aware of the elections and several others have complained that, although eligible, the e-voting portal prevented them for casting their votes as the portal did not generate the one-time password necessary for logging into the portal. 

“Most shockingly, several members have also complained that they found that their votes had already been cast when they tried to login to the portal. Without any login or OTP their votes were already cast. It further appears that a member could login multiple times and cast multiple votes against the candidate/s of his/her choice thereby voting more than once which is illegal and intended to manipulate the elections,” he stated in the FIR.

“Clearly, someone in control of the e-voting portal deliberately committed this manipulation in order to control the results. Infact, several members informed me that the OTP was being given to them by Risikesh Sunar, which clearly indicates that he had east access to the list of the OTPs prior and during the course of the Elections and the e-voting portal was not secure in any manner whatsoever,” he added.

Laitphlang said that certain members of the Election Committee, the agency responsible for designing the e-voting portal, the Administrator and some other persons with vested interests in the elections, have in collusion, interfered with the entire voting process, are responsible for casting illegal votes on behalf of several members without their knowledge and consent and have by their actions manipulated the election and its results.