In connection with a widely circulated viral video on social media that featured him casting multiple votes at a polling station in favor of a BJP candidate, a young voter was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police.

After several opposition party leaders, including the Congress and Samajwadi Party, shared the incident’s video on X, the accused, Rajan Singh, was taken into custody late on Sunday.

In the two-minute video, the voter is seen using the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) to cast at least eight votes for Mukesh Rajput, the BJP candidate.

Rajput is a BJP candidate running for the Uttar Pradesh seat of Farrukhabad in the Lok Sabha.

Following the discovery, the Assistant Returning Officer, Prateet Tripathi, filed a complaint, leading to the filing of a First Information Report (FIR) at the Naya Gaon police station.

Sections 171F (offence related to elections), 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), Sections 128, 132, and 136 of the Representation of the People’s Act (relating to maintaining the secrecy of voting, fraud at elections, and other election offences), and other pertinent laws are among the sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other applicable laws under which the case has been registered.

Even the Election Commission took cognisance of the matter and has directed concerned authorities to take prompt and effective action.

“Cognisance of the circulating video has been taken. Concerned District Election Officer has been directed to take prompt and effective action,” Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said.

Authorities have also been instructed by the poll panel to suspend and file disciplinary charges against all officials who were present at the polling place at the time of the incident.

The crackdown happened shortly after the Election Commission (EC) was requested to take action by the Congress and Samajwadi Party, who had shared the incident’s video on social media platform X.

“Dear Election Commission, do you see this? One person is voting eight times. It is time to wake up,” Congress wrote on X.

Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav also shared the video and sought action from the EC.