New Delhi: The Nagpur police have registered a first information report (FIR) against Sanjay Kumar, a faculty at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), a government-funded research body, over a now-deleted social media post in connection with Maharashtra elections. 

The FIR comes a day after Kumar had publicly apologised for his post that stirred a controversy amid existing debate and allegations around ‘vote fraud’ that gained momentum following a press conference led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Kumar had reportedly claimed that the number of voters in Maharashtra's Nashik West and Hingna Assembly segments rose by 47% and 43%, 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% and 36%, respectively.

He later apologised, in a post on X on Tuesday (August 19), saying the data was “misread”.

“I sincerely apologize 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.

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. 

DEO Nashik had also posted on X, “Sanjay Kumar from CSDS, has posted  misleading information of voters of 126-Devlali AC  for LS-2024 and MH LA-2024, case is registered against him. It is requested to all citizens to verify the info only from ECI website.”

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".

Meanwhile, the Congress rejected the claims, and said Rahul Gandhi's assertions were made on data given by the poll panel itself.

The FIR has been filed under multiple sections of the BNS, including sections 175, 353(1)(b), 212, and 340(1)(2), indicating charges related to false information and potential election-related violations.

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