The Nagpur police on Thursday registered a first information report (FIR) against a senior official at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), in connection with a now-deleted social media post in connection with Maharashtra elections.
The official identified as Sanjay Kumar sparked controversy after his post on social media reportedly claimed ‘vote fraud’ in Maharashtra polls.
In his post, Kumar claimed that the number of voters in Maharashtra’s Nashik West and Hingna Assembly segments rose by 47 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively, between the Lok Sabha election last year and Maharashtra elections this year.
He had also claimed that the number of voters sharply fell in Ramtek and Devlali constituencies by 38 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively.
The post was made amid existing debate and allegations around ‘vote fraud’ that gained momentum following a press conference led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The FIR was registered a day after Kumar had publicly apologised for his post. The complaint invokes multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Sections 175, 212, 340(1)(2), and 353(1)(b).
These charges pertain to the dissemination of false information and alleged violations of election-related protocols.
Kumar later issued an apology in a post on X on August 19, stating that the data was “misread”.
“I sincerely apologise for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections. Error occurred while comparing data of 2024 LS and 2024 AS. The data in row was misread by our Data team. The tweet has since been removed. I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation,” he said on X.
The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), which operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Education, issued a show cause notice to CSDS on Tuesday, August 19, over the misleading data. Meanwhile, the case was registered by the district election office (DEO) of Nashik.
Following Kumar’s apology, BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya accused him of misrepresenting projections to favour the Congress, calling the data a case of “confirmation bias.”
The Congress however, rejected the claims, and said Rahul Gandhi’s assertions were made on data given by the poll panel itself.