Case filed against person claiming EVM hacking, election commission calls video fake

The Election Commission of India: The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra has termed the viral video as fake and has registered a case against Shuja, calling his claims baseless, false, and unreliable.

The Election Commission of India: The Election Commission has filed a case against Syed Shuja, who claimed to hack EVMs, under the IT Act at the South Mumbai cyber police station. On November 14, a video of Shuja went viral, in which he claimed that he could hack EVMs used in the Maharashtra elections using American defence technology. He allegedly offered to hack 63 seats for Rs 53 crore to several politicians.

Election Commission calls video fake

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra has termed the viral video as fake and has registered a case against Shuja, calling his claims baseless, false, and unreliable. Shuja is a cyber security researcher and is originally from Hyderabad, but currently resides in Canada. He had made a similar claim in 2019 at a press conference in London, following which a case was registered against him. The Election Commission has reiterated that EVMs are standalone, tamper-proof devices and are completely secure.

Rs 66.64 lakh for EVM verification

After the Maharashtra Assembly elections, several candidates applied for the verification of EVM microcontrollers. Yuvraj Pawar, the nephew of Ajit Pawar, who lost to Baramati, paid Rs 8.96 lakh to the district administration to verify the microcontrollers of 19 EVMs. Other candidates, including Prashant Jagtap from Rakaanpaa (Sharad) and Congress candidate Ramesh Bagwe, have also applied. Candidates from 11 constituencies in Pune district have paid Rs 66.64 lakh to verify the microcontrollers of 137 EVM sets.