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My VVPAT machine((Delhi, Matiala, Booth 96) printed the wrong symbol although the EVM machine red bulb glowed correctly. I complained to the presiding officer who directed me to nodal officer who then directed me to sector officer. All of them asked me not to complain ! (1/n)
I insisted. They told me I'd be arrested under ipc sec 177. I found that strange because that section doesn't provide for arrest without court orders. I told them I'd submit a written complaint anyway. The senior most officer told me that I would have to write in Annexure 6.(2/n)
And that I will face arrest. They insisted on informing my wife on phone but ended up scaring her obviously. The officer told me that of all the VVPAT elections so far, no one in India has yet submitted the complaint in the required format of Annexure 6 & I must withdraw. (3/n)
I was asked to agree to a test vote. That was strange as I told them I wouldn't reveal my secret vote cast earlier in the test vote & pressing any other button is not a test. He said if you complain you have to reveal your secret vote. I asked him to say that in writing. (4/n)
He did not but said press any random button. By then 1.5 hours had passed & they had not stopped the voting & I was pressured by everybody there to withdraw. They said test vote failure would mean arrest. It was nonsense but I had to hear it. I proceeded with the test vote(5/n)
In presence of everyone the test vote started at around 6 pm while I had complained 1.5 hours ago. Voting was not stopped as per rules on my complaint. (The Form 17A reveals this where test vote is recorded in serial). In the test, I was asked to press any random button (6/n)
I did exactly that. There were witnesses now. I stood in front of the EVM, closed my eyes and looked up & randomly scrolled my fingers blindly on the EVM. The witnesses saw that by doing this I wasn't intending to reveal my earlier secret vote in this testing procedure. (7/n)
My fingers stopped at some bricks symbol (independent candidate, I think). I pressed it. The VVPAT printed the bricks symbol in next few seconds. The officer then announced that I proved myself wrong, & I said that you asked me to select randomly and I did that (8/n)
This bricks symbol wasn't my secret vote cast earlier as I wouldn't reveal my earlier vote during the test(video recorded) as well. He said nothing doing you're now going to be arrested. I said well, do that. He then asked the police to arrest me. The police did not but.. (9/n)
Police asked me to come along to the police station. I asked is this arrest/detention/custody what is it and as per which law? The police officer said neither but just come along. I followed them to the Sector 9, Dwarka police station. There they didn't know what to do (10/n)
The police officers kept calling election officers for what to do with me. They couldn't figure out for 4 hours. I was there all the time illegally detained. Somewhere I lost my patience with the police staff & asked them to either arrest me formally or let me go home (11/n)
Of course they couldn't do so as section 177 doesn't allow it. Finally, the police officer said that they'll discuss later and decided to drop me to back to my home. I returned to my very worried wife at around 11 pm having set out from my home to vote around 4 pm. (12/n)
All of this was so illegal & is now on record. The test vote is not mandatory as per rule 49MA but they made it so. Test vote was not my earlier secret vote but they assumed it to be so to declare me wrong. The voting was supposed to stop after my complaint as per rules..(13/n)
but they did not stop the voting(this is also on record in form 17A now)! There is no provision of arrest/detention on complaint without court orders under ipc 177, yet I was illegally detained for 4 hours! No one knew what to do and all else they did was to pressurise me (14/n)
All these illegalities were conducted because I decided to submit a written complaint about VVPAT. How will they prove their point that any random test button pressed on EVM which prints on VVPAT correctly is proof enough that other buttons also work correctly?(15/n)
Worst was the pressure to reveal my secret vote during the test vote if I had to prove myself right. It was downright disgusting to ask for that by the officers. Officers said there are no guidelines from Election Commission either for which vote should be the test vote! (16/n)
Will my vote be counted despite my written complaint? Will the VVPAT machine be correct, if the test vote was conducted on any random button pressed on EVM? I hope someone out there is worried about these questions if they claim to care about democracy (17/17) !
Sharing the copy of my complaint which many have been asking for. Police had kept even this copy of mine with them & returned it today upon my insistence. You can see section 177 written on it. It's non-cognisable (can't detain without court orders) and yet I was detained. 
