Andhra Pradesh IAS officer suspended for electoral malpractice identity cards

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday suspended senior IAS officer P S Girisha following a direction from the Election Commission of India (ECI) for alleged malpractices during the by-election to the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat held in 2021.

Girisha was the Returning Officer for the by-poll to the Tirupati LS constituency in 2021 when fake electoral photo identity cards, about 30,000, were allegedly created, an official said.

“The EC has issued instructions and he (Girisha) has been suspended. The suspension orders came today from the government,” the official told PTI on the action taken on Annamayya district collector Girisha.

The Election Commission is of the view that those EPICs were downloaded from the returning officer’s log-in and then subsequently misused, hence holding him accountable.

Recently, the Election Commission headed by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar had visited Andhra Pradesh and reviewed the state’s preparedness for forthcoming Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.