Election Commission files complaint against man claiming to hack EVMs

Mumbai Cyber Police has lodged an FIR against a man who claimed he could hack EVMs by isolating machine frequency, Election Commission (EC) officials said.

The complaint in the matter was lodged by the Maharashtra chief electoral officer (CEO), alleging that the claims made by the accused, Syed Shuja, were false, baseless and unsubstantiated, they said.

The FIR was registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the IT Act at Cyber Police Station, Dakshin Mumbai on November 30 "against the person in this video", the CEO said.

The EC action came after some social media users shared a video in which a man is heard claiming that he could hack and tamper with electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the Maharashtra elections by isolating the machine's frequency.

EC officials here identified the man as Syed Shuja.

In 2019, the EC ordered filing of an FIR against Shuja for making similar claims.

"In a similar incident involving false claims, an FIR was lodged on the direction of the Election Commission against the same person in 2019 in Delhi who is hiding in some another country," the office of the Maharashtra CEO said in a post on X.

Delhi and Mumbai police are actively investigating the case and taking necessary steps to identify and apprehend anyone in India who is in contact with "such individuals" or complicit in these "malicious activities", an EC official said.

Such actions are a serious offence and no one involved will be spared, the official said.

The EC has maintained that EVMs are standalone machines that cannot be connected to any network, including WiFi or Bluetooth. It has also stressed that EVMs are completely tamper-proof.

The Supreme Court has reposed its faith in EVMs on multiple occasions.