Hot tea torture for refusing to hand over list of dead voters

Around 15 men shouted at her: “Give us the list of dead candidates.” She refused. They threatened to teach 
her “a lesson” after voting ended.

On her way home, the group of suspected Trinamul workers intercepted Pranati Bag. They not only beat her up, but also poured a glass of hot tea on her. Before they left, they threatened her with dire consequences if she lodged a police complaint or spoke to the media.  

Bag, who was the polling officer at booth No. 39 at Baidyanathpur Primary School in Burdwan’s Pandavesvar, lay on the ground, writhing in pain. The 50-year-old schoolteacher then took a rickshaw to the block development office. 

On Tuesday morning, she lodged a police complaint. 

The Election Commission has directed presiding officers to submit a list of absent, shifted or dead (ASD) candidates so that false votes are not cast. 

Trinamul denied its workers were involved in the assault on Bag. Party MLA Narendranath Chakraborty dubbed her “a CPM agent” and accused her of lodging a false complaint.  

Subrata Ghosh, the officer in charge of Pandavesvar police station, said an investigation had been started. 

Although it could not be ascertained why the suspected Trinamul workers asked for the list of dead voters, it is suspected that they wanted to be careful while casting false votes. Votes were cast against names on the ASD list in a booth in West Midnapore that recorded 100 per cent polling.  

Abhijeet Chatterjee of The Telegraph spoke to Bag at her home. She lives with her son, a college student 

 

I was on my way home around 7pm after work got over at the booth. At least 15 men surrounded me on an empty stretch that leads to my home.  

I could identify most of them. They had come to the booth asking for the list of dead voters and threatened to teach me a lesson when I refused. I had seen them work for Trinamul in the run-up to the elections.   

They abused me. Then one of them threw hot tea on my face. I covered my face and turned around to run. Another man poured hot tea on me. 

I asked them what my fault was and said I had only done my job. They said I was a CPM worker. With folded hands, I pleaded with them to let me go. One of them pushed me to the ground while the others kicked and punched me. 

Before they left, they threatened me with dire consequences if I went to the police or the media. 

I felt extreme pain in the stomach. I limped for sometime and then saw a rickshaw. I went to the block development officer. I was traumatised. I told him I would not do poll duty again.

I went to the police station this morning. 

I have been doing poll duty since 2000 but something like this had never happened before. I don’t know if it was my fault. I was just doing my duty.  

The 15 men kept demanding the list and I refused to hand it over to them. I had asked them what they would do with the list. They couldn’t give a satisfactory answer.

I informed the presiding officer, who told central force jawans to intervene. The men had no option but to leave when the jawans asked them to. Before they left, some of them pointed towards me and said: “Dekhe nebo (we’ll see you).” 

I really had to pay a heavy price for doing my job. Not only did they assault me, hey also threatened my son over the phone. I don’t know what will happen to my family. 

 

 

Young officer’s diktat to central forces, TMC agent 

He is in his 20s and this was his first election assignment. But two key decisions he took on Tuesday stopped Bengal’s infamous ghosts from casting false votes in the dying hours of polling.

Meet the presiding officer of booth No. 69 at Tetulia Bhumjam Primary School in West Midnapore’s Narayangarh, where 130 members of 15 families could not vote because of alleged Trinamul threats. 

According to records, 530 of 678 voters cast their ballot at the booth and had these 130 votes been cast, the turnout would have been 18 short of 100 per cent.  

The presiding officer, who is an IIT employee and is not on the payroll of the Bengal government, recounted how he prevented the loot of votes. 

He got the area outside the booth cleared with the help of central force jawans and asked the Trinamul agent to use his cellphone only in case of an emergency.  

When Naresh Jana of The Telegraph visited the area during polling, he saw small groups of people standing every 50 metres and keeping a watch on people going to the booth. Only one person voted in the last half an hour.  

The officer, whose name is being withheld, recounts his experience: 

 

When I started from Kharagpur on Sunday night for the Narayangarh booth with the electronic voting machine, I was told that I would be the commanding officer of the central force jawans posted there. 

Polling started on time and in the first hour, 71 votes were cast. The polling agents of both Trinamul and CPM were present and neither had any complaint. 

There was no disturbance in the booth and polling was going on smoothly. It picked up speed in the next few hours. By 9am, 128 votes had been cast. By the time it was noon, 323 people had voted, just below the 50 per cent mark. 

The vote count rose to 480 by 3pm. Till that point, there was no problem. I sat in the booth along with the other polling personnel and the agents. There was nothing much to do. 

But in the next two hours, only 49 voters turned up. I felt something was wrong and asked the polling agents where the remaining 149 voters were? 

The Trinamul polling agent said around 150 people from the neighbourhood were out of station. 

I asked him what kind of work these people did, but he could not give a plausible reply. 

An hour before the official closing time, I stepped out of the room and had a look outside. 

Around 200 metres away, I saw a group of 15-20 people standing under a tree. 

There were eight central force jawans. I told three of them to guard the EVM and sent the remaining to clear the area. Seeing the jawans, the crowd dispersed. Then I turned my attention to the booth. 

The CPM polling agent was not carrying a cellphone, but the Trinamul agent had one. 

I told him sternly not to use it unless there was a pressing need. 

He did not use his cellphone till 6pm, when polling officially ended. Only one of the 149 remaining voters came in the last 30 minutes.

 

Schoolteacher stands up to Trinamul MLA

He didn’t have a plaque with “presiding officer” written on it on the rickety wooden table before him. 

Some three hours into polling, everyone inside booth No. 91 at Anjuman Urdu Girls High School in Raniganj knew he was the man in charge.

The presiding officer, a schoolteacher, stood up to Trinamul MLA Sohrab Ali and told him to leave the booth 
as he was not a candidate or a voter. 

Sohrab had been convicted in a railway scrap theft case, but Trinamul retained him as an MLA. At a rally in Durgapur on April 7, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had called Sohrab “bechara” and rued that he could not be given a ticket to contest the elections because of the case.

Trinamul nominated Sohrab’s wife Nargis Banu from Raniganj, prompting the Opposition to dub her a “dummy candidate” and allege that the ruling party was banking on the MLA’s clout to garner votes in Raniganj.   

Sohrab described the argument with the presiding officer as “a small incident”. 

“I have apologised. Such things happen,” he said.

Kinsuk Basu of The Telegraph spoke to the officer, whose name is being withheld .  

 

It was around 10.30am. Some three-and-a-half hours had passed since voting had started. I was lost in my yellow files, busy making notes. 

Voters were standing in the queue. Suddenly, a man dressed in a white shirt and trousers entered the booth. He was with the Trinamul candidate, Nargis Banu. Central force jawans had stopped his guard but he managed to walk in.

The moment he entered, the CPM’s polling agent shouted at him. The Trinamul agent stood up. Before I could realise who he was, there was a heated exchange between him and the CPM agent. 

All of a sudden, the environment inside the booth changed. Some voters came forward and for a moment all attention was on the intruder. I realised this man was anyone but a voter. I walked up to him and asked him to leave. 

I told him he was neither a voter nor the candidate and so he shouldn’t be inside the booth. I didn’t shout, but I was firm. The man got the message. He waited for a few minutes and left. 

He waved to the voters and left. People later told me he was Sohrab Ali, a Trinamul MLA.

I don’t think I did something great. The Election Commission had appointed me the presiding officer and it was my responsibility to ensure the voting process was not hampered in any way.