Vijayawada:The State Election Commission has lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police station here, seeking a probe into the spread of “misleading information” on conduct of the local body elections, and necessary action against those involved.

In a statement here on Tuesday, SEC Anil Chandra noted that on August 21, a “fake” news was circulated through social media giving an election schedule typed on tampered letterheads with official logos and signature, falsely projecting this as an official communication of the SEC.

He noted that the SET had given a clarification on it on August 24.

Similarly, on Sept 28, another fabricated news was circulated via various WhatsApp groups, saying that the SEC had informed the media that another two months would be required for announcing the election schedule for the local body polls in the state.

Such news further claimed that the commission would proceed with the election process only after obtaining clearance in court cases relating to electoral rolls and reservations. The SEC, he said, rebutted such misleading information again on Sept 29.

The election commissioner said that given the repeated circulation of such fabricated information causing confusion among the people, political parties and government officials, the SEC lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police, urging it to initiate a thorough investigation into these actions and identify the persons involved the fabrication and spread of such news by wrongly quoting the SEC.

He called for necessary punitive action under relevant provisions of Information Technology Act, 2000, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and other applicable cyber laws and statutory provisions.

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