Syed Shuza who claimed 2014 poll rigging is not our employee say EVM manufacturer

The Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), one of the two state-owned companies that make electronic voting machines (EVMs), on Tuesday said Syed Shuja, who has claimed that the 2014 Lok Sabha polls were rigged by manipulating EVMs, has never been its employee nor associated with the EVM designing team between 2009 and 2014. The Election Commission (EC) has already lodged a police complaint against Shuja under Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) pertaining to "public mischief".

"The records of this company have been verified and it is found that Syed Shuja has neither been in the rolls of ECIL as a regular employee nor was he in any way associated in the design and development of EVMs in ECIL produced between 2009 to 2014," ECIL Chairman and MD Sanjay Chaubey informed the EC in a letter on Tuesday. The Election Commission has lodged a complaint with the police against Shuja. In a letter to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, the EC has said that Shuja's claims made through video conferencing in London violated the IPC, particularly Section 505, which deals with "public mischief".

"Through media reports, it has come to the notice of the Commission that one Syed Shuja, on January 21 in London, claimed that he was part of the EVM design team and he can hack the EVM used in elections in India. The act of Shuja is violative of IPC, particularly Section 505(1)(b)," the letter read. "Accordingly, you are requested to lodge an FIR and investigate the matter promptly for violation of aforesaid Section of IPC and other related provisions of any law," it said.

Section 505(1)(b) reads: "Whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public... whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquillity." In a sensational claim, US-based Shuja on Monday said the 2014 Lok Sabha elections were "rigged" and even claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gopinath Munde was killed as he knew about the "hacking" of EVMs.

Shuja, who claims to be part of the team that designed the EVMs used in India, alleged that the Congress lost 210 seats in the 2014 general election "due to tampering". He further alleged that his team members met "a BJP leader in 2014 who knew about this" and "they were killed in an attack".

He claimed that "if his people had not intercepted the BJP's attempts to hack the transmissions during this year's assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, they would have won those states as well". He claimed to have stopped the transmission during the Delhi Assembly elections in 2015 and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged the winner. "In Delhi Assembly elections, transmission initiated by the BJP IT was intercepted. We changed the frequency." Shuja claimed he too was attacked a few days ago. He claimed that a private company had helped the BJP to get low-frequency signals to hack the EVMs.

(With inputs from agencies.)