A polling team in the Kurung Kumey district of Arunachal Pradesh was allegedly attacked by around 500 masked men on Sunday, 19 May, reportedly stealing their EVMs.
The team was on its way to the Nampe, for a re-poll that had been scheduled for Tuesday, 21 May, the Arunachal Times reported.
Nampe falls under the Koloriang Assembly constituency in the Kurung Kumey district.
The team, which also comprised the CPRF and two sections of the Indian Reserve Battalion, was waylaid at Lumbung by the group.
The assailants belonged to the National People’s Party, a BJP ally in Arunachal, a police officer quoted in the report said.
“The miscreants ambushed the team around 5 pm,” Nampe sector magistrate Rido Tarak said, after he filed an FIR at the Koloriang police station.
“They indiscriminately fired several rounds of bullets with sophisticated weapons, which included AK-47 assault rifles,” he added, as per the report.
The attackers, who outnumbered the forces present and the polling team, overwhelmed them and forced them to surrender the EVMs, another police officer told Arunachal Times.
The forces present on the spot did not retaliate, fearing casualties on both sides.
A report by The Hindu, meanwhile, quoted Nodal Election Officer Sunil Garg as saying that a police team had left for Nampe to probe the incident.
The poll panel had ordered re-polling at the booth in Koloriang constituency after allegations of electoral malpractices during an earlier re-election in April, PTI reported.
(With inputs from Arunachal Times, The Hindu, PTI)
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