The Returning Officer (RO) attached to T Kallupatti panchayat in Madurai district, on Monday, March 7, admitted that he had changed the civic poll result for Ward 10, in favour of the DMK candidate. He confessed that he did so due to the pressure exerted by the local ruling party functionaries.

The RO made the admission when a PIL petition from R Palaniselvi (40), an independent candidate, challenging the declaration of the RO made on February 22 came up for further hearing before the first bench of Chief Justice MN Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy at Madras High Court, on Monday.

According to the petitioner Palaniselvi, she and her opponent R Subbulakshmi of the DMK had secured an equal number of votes in the elections held on February 19. Hence, a lot was conducted to decide the issue, which was videographed.

Though the lot went in her favour, the election officer declared Subbulakshmi as the elected one. Hence, the present petition to quash the declaration made by the election officer on February 22 as illegal and consequently to declare her as the successful candidate.

When the matter came up for hearing on the last occasion, the bench called for the video clippings of the conduct of the lot. Accordingly, the video clippings were produced and the bench found that the election officer had tampered with the result.

When the matter came up today, the election officer admitted that he had tampered with the election result due to the pressure exerted by the local DMK functionaries. The counsel representing the State Election Commission (SEC) told the bench that the official concerned was suspended from service and Palanisevi has been announced as the successful candidate.

After directing the election officer to file an affidavit to that effect, the bench posted the matter after 10 days for passing final orders.