EVMs for 2014 polls hacked, claims 'cyber expert'

The controversy over electronic voting machines flared up again as a man claiming to be a cyber expert based in the United States alleged at an event in London on Monday that the 2014 parliamentary elections in India had been rigged.

Syed Shuja, who claimed to be a former employee of the Electronics Corporations of India Ltd (ECIL), alleged that BJP leader Gopinath Munde had been killed because he was aware of the hacking of EVMs to manipulate the outcome of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He went on to claim that journalist Gauri Lankesh learned about the EVM hacking, but was killed before she could make it public.

Shuja, who addressed reporters in London through Skype, said that he could not be personally present at the event as he had recently been attacked in the US and some of his team members had been killed. His face was covered when he addressed the event.

The event — “How to hack foreign elections?” — was hosted by the Foreign Press Association of London, in association with the Indian Journalists Association in London. Congress leader Kapil Sibal was present at the event.

The EVMs used by the EC to conduct polls were manufactured by the state-owned ECIL and Bharat Electronics Ltd. Munde was killed in a road accident in New Delhi on June 3, 2014; it was just days after he had been sworn in as a minister in the new government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.