‘Poll officer not removed for stopping Vadra’s convoy’

The Election Commission (EC) Tuesday described as “baseless” reports that a district election officer (DEO) in Uttar Pradesh was transferred for stopping the convoy of Robert Vadra, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law.

The poll panel had earlier identified the officer as Pawan Kumar Sen, but later clarified his name as Pawan Kumar Sain.

“The commission has come across some unwarranted references in the media regarding its decision to re-deploy an officer Pawan Kumar Sain, presently on election duty in CSM Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh as a DEO in the state of Goa,” the poll panel said.

Vadra was Monday stopped by authorities in the district for using more vehicles than the permitted 10 ahead of the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh elections beginning Wednesday.

According to the commission, the decision to transfer Sain was “baselessly linked to certain enforcement action taken by the particular officer in his capacity as an election observer in an incident involving Vadra in some assembly constituency in CSM Nagar”.

“The officer acted in accordance with the law and fully in conformity with the instructions of commission,” it said.

The commission said the decision to post Sain as the district election officer in South Goa was in process for a week and was based on the need to replace the current official.

The poll panel also said that there was demand from several quarters during the commission’s visit to Goa last week that a Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer should be posted.

“Sain, an IAS officer of the Goa state cadre was found most suitable for the post and his appointment was accordingly ordered by the commission on Feb 6 well before the incident in CSM Nagar took place,” the statement added.

“However, in view of the subsequent incident in CSM Nagar, the commission decided to defer the officer’s joining as DEO in South Goa till the polling in the concerned constituencies are over.

Any different interpretation of the deployment of would be completely wrong,” the statement said.

The panel also said that at the moment Daulat A. Havaldar has been posted as the district collector of south Goa. The decision was taken Feb 7.