Bhubaneswar: On basis of a recommendation from the Bhadrak District Election Officer and Collector, the Odisha government has suspended Santosh Kumar Naik, Executive Officer of Dhamnagar NAC and Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) of the Dhamnagar Assembly constituency.

Naik has been suspended over allegations of the unauthorised use of Booth Level Officers’ (BLOs) identity cards, login credentials and one-time passwords (OTPs) to submit and upload Form-7 applications.

During the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Form-7 is the prescribed application for seeking deletion of names from the voter list.

Naik’s headquarters will be the office of the Project Director, District Urban Development Agency (PD, DUDA), Bhadrak during the suspension period. He has been directed not to leave the headquarters without prior permission from the competent authority.

The suspension follows consent from the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Odisha.

The Bhadrak DEO and Collector had recommended Naik’s suspension in view of the nature of the allegations, pending disciplinary proceedings.

The alleged unauthorised use of official BLO credentials and OTPs has raised questions over the process through which Form-7 applications were submitted and uploaded during the SIR exercise.

However, the allegations are yet to be established. The disciplinary inquiry will examine the circumstances surrounding the use of the credentials and OTPs and determine the facts of the matter.

The inquiry is also expected to examine the procedure followed for seeking deletion of voters’ names, the credentials used to upload the applications and how the OTPs required for the process were obtained and used.