EVM Hackathon in London: '2014 Lok Sabha Elections Were Rigged...Gopinath Munde Was Murdered as He Knew About It', Says US-Based Expert Syed Shuja
According to Shuja, not only Munde, but journalist Gauri Lankesh was also 'murdered' on behest of the BJP as she had 'agreed' to run a story on the hacking of EVMs based on the evidence provided by him.
London, January 21: In a series of starling claims, a US-based cyber expert who exhibited how an electronic voting machine used by the Election Commission of India (ECI) could be "hacked", said the 2014 Lok Sabha polls were entirely "rigged" by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Syed Shuja, the tech-savvy demonstrator who attempted to prove the vulnerability of Indian EVMs, claimed that senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde was "murdered" as was about to expose the party leadership for "rigging" the parliamentary elections in 2014. Farooq Abdullah Backs Ballot Paper System, Says ‘EVM Is Chor Machine’.
Notably, Munde died in a road accident in June 2014. The BJP veteran was the Union Minister for Rural Development at the time of his demise.
According to Shuja, not only Munde, but journalist Gauri Lankesh was also "murdered" on behest of the BJP as she had "agreed" to run a story on the hacking of EVMs based on the evidence provided by him.
"She was waiting to run the story, but she was murdered," Shuja said, pointing out to an RTI filed by the scribe months before her death, asking the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) to disclose who manufactured the cables used in the EVMs.
According to Shuja, the BJP IT cell has been aided by telecom giant Reliance Communications in its alleged bid to hack the EVMs. The company has helped the BJP to get low frequency signals to hack the voting machines, he alleged.
"Reliance Communications have the network to transmit the data, BJP is the beneficiary. There are nine places in India where there are facilities. The employees don’t know that they are tampering with EVMs. They think they are doing data entry," Shuja said at the event, which was attended by senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal.
On the charges of EVM rigging, the BJP has often rebutted with examples of Bihar and Delhi assembly polls of 2015, and the recent legislative elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh -- where the party was humbled by the Opposition.
Shuja, however, claims that the Delhi polls of 2015, and the recent elections in the Hindi heartland, were exceptions as his team had intercepted the signals used by the BJP IT cell to rig EVMs.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 21, 2019 07:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).