EVM hacking row: Election Commission files complaint with Delhi Police against 'cyber expert' Syed Shuja

The Election Commission (EC) filed a complaint with Delhi Police against Syed Shuja, an Indian “cyber expert” based in the US, who claimed that the 2014 Lok Sabha election was “rigged”, ANI reported. The EC requested the police to investigate the statement made by Shuja on Monday at a hackathon event in London.

Election Commission of India (ECI) writes to Delhi Police requesting it to lodge an FIR & investigate properly the statement made by Syed Shuja yesterday at an event in London claiming to demonstrate EVMs used by ECI can be tampered with pic.twitter.com/Fgdn7Ys4zY

— ANI (@ANI) January 22, 2019

In the complaint, the EC said that all the “elections to the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha are conducted with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) manufactured by ECIL and BEL”, both Public Sector Undertakings. “Honourable Supreme Court and various Honorable High Courts have also endorsed the use of EVMs in the elections through various judgments,” the complaint said.Saying that the allegations made by Shuja are “violative of  IPC, particularly under section 505(1)(b)”, the EC requested the police to lodge an FIR and investigate the matter promptly. At the hackathon’s press conference on Monday, Shuja alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had hacked the EVMs in 2014 using a modulator which transmits military-grade frequency. On Tuesday, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned the presence of senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal at the event. “Congress’ false agenda is an insult to the Indian voters. In what capacity was (senior Congress leader) Kapil Sibal present at the EVM hackathon event? He went there to monitor it on behalf of Congress,” Prasad said in New Delhi, “Is the Congress-sponsored event designed to defame the popular mandate of India?” After Kapil Sibal’s presence at the event stoked a controversy, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said on Monday that Sibal attended the event as he was invited by a journalist and didn’t go there as a Congress representative. The EC, on Monday, threatened to take legal action. In a statement, the poll panel clarified that the EVMs can’t be tampered with, and asserted that the machines are manufactured following “rigorous standard operating procedures”.

 “It is being separately examined as to what legal action can and should be taken in the matter,” it said.

“EC has been wary of becoming a party to this motivated slugfest and stands by empirical facts about the fool-proof nature of ECI EVMs,” the commission said. With inputs from PTI