The Election Commission on Tuesday banned Shamli district magistrate Inder Vikram Singh from any election-related work for a year, apparently in connection with a complaint from the consensus Opposition candidate during the Kairana Lok Sabha by-election in May.

A poll panel spokesperson said on Wednesday the commission had “warned him for his lapse in supervision as returning officer (in Kairana)”.

After Tuesday’s order, the Uttar Pradesh government had transferred Inder Vikram without a fresh posting and appointed Akhilesh Singh, special secretary in the urban development department, as the new district magistrate in Shamli.

During the by-election, Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate Tabassum Hasan, backed by a united Opposition, had complained about malfunctioning voting machines and voter-verifiable paper audit trail devices at 155 booths.

By the time polling ended, 355 of the 1,705 paper audit trail devices had had to be replaced across Kairana.

“Despite repeated complaints, nothing is being resolved and voters are deliberately being denied their franchise,” Hasan had complained to the commission.

The by-election had happened during Ramazan. Several voters who had been fasting reportedly left without casting their votes rather than wait in the summer heat for the machines to be replaced.

Inder Vikram was allegedly unreachable on polling day. Hasan won the by-election defeating the BJP’s Mriganka Singh by 44,618 votes.