MUMBAI: Metropolitan Magistrare V B Srikhande on Saturday granted conditional bail to scientist-cum-activist Hari Prasad, who was arrested in Hyderabad last week on charges of stealing an Electronic Voting Machine from Mumbai’s Old Customs building. The Metropolitan Court granted bail while rejecting the prosecution demand for extension of his police custody. Prasad was granted bail on a bond of Rs 25,000 and on condition that he would report to the police station concerned once in a week for a month.
“No offence was disclosed with Hari Prasad’s arrest and even if it was assumed that the EVM was stolen, it appears that there was no dishonest intention on his part...he was trying to show how the EVM machines can be tampered with,” the magistrate said.
The court also asked the Election Commission to approve or disapprove the claim made by the accused that EVM machines could be tampered with. If Hari Prasad is making false claims then action could be taken against him, the magistrate further said.
The police, however, sought further custody of Prasad, saying it needed to find out the identity of two other activists from Maharashtra who allegedly helped him to steal the EVM. Prasad’s lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani reiterated his argument that his client did not steal the EVM, which was given to him by two persons who took it back within two days. Junior Jethmalani said, the EVM was handed over to Prasad by some activists from Maharashtra, who had approached his client to know if he could prove that the machine was not tamper-proof.