Election Commission asks Delhi Police to lodge FIR against Syed Shuja for remarks on EVM hacking

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has written to Delhi Police requesting it to lodge an FIR and investigate properly the statement made by Syed Shuja on Monday at an event in London claiming to demonstrate EVMs used by ECI can be tampered with.

“Through media reports, it has come to the notice of the commission that allegedly one Mr. Syed Shuja claimed (at the event in London) that he was part of the EVM design team and he can hack the EVMs used in elections in India,” Election Commission of India writes to Delhi Police.

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

Addressing a press conference via video conference, Shuja made several explosive allegations regarding EVM tampering during 2014 Lok Sabha Elections and several state Assembly polls including that of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and others. The unprecedented event also marked the attendance of Congress leader Kapil Sibal.

Shuja, reportedly a cyber expert, had claimed that the 2014 general election was "rigged" through the EVMs, which, he said, can be hacked.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has rejected the claims of Shuja saying the allegation as a "hacking horror show organised" by the Congress, and said the opposition party has begun looking for an excuse for its likely defeat in the next Lok Sabha polls.

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said its leader Kapil Sibal's presence at the press conference in London was not a coincidence. Naqvi alleged that top Congress leaders, including its president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi, would have sent Sibal as their "postman".

"Electronic Voting Machines cannot be hacked. What is clear is that anti-India forces have hacked into the mind of Congress. What we have seen is a hacking horror show organised by the Congress ahead of its defeat in Lok Sabha polls. It is looking for an excuse for its impending loss," the BJP leader told reporters.