Maharashtra Assembly elections 2024: Whistleblower demands Rs 52 crore to tamper with evms for MP
Mumbai: With Maharashtra gearing up for elections on November 20, a self-proclaimed cyber expert, Syed Shuja, has once again raised allegations of EVM tampering. Shuja claims he can hack Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) using technology from the US Department of Defence, where he once worked as a contractor.
According to a report in India Today, Shuja disclosed his capabilities to a journalist posing as the PA of a Member of Parliament. He claimed access to 281 out of 288 constituencies and claimed he could manipulate EVM results in 63 seats if provided with VVPAT details.
Shuja stated that his method involves intercepting transmissions on polling day to replace the Election Commission’s file with one of his own. Despite EVMs being powered off, he claimed the transmissions would continue, enabling tampering. Shuja reportedly demanded $6 million (approximately Rs 52 crore) for his services.
This isn’t the first instance of Shuja making such claims. In 2019, he alleged EVM hacking during the 2014 elections that saw the BJP’s resounding victory. He also accused the BJP of orchestrating the killing of Gopinath Munde for knowing too much about EVM tampering.
The Election Commission has consistently denied allegations of EVM manipulation. Last month, the Commission dismissed claims of irregularities during the Haryana elections, describing the accusations as unfounded and warning against attempts to undermine electoral integrity.
As Maharashtra heads to polls amid these allegations, parties like Shiv Sena, NCP, BJP, and Congress vie for dominance in a politically fractured state.
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Anyone threatening our workers will be made to sleep on ice slab, says Aaditya Thackeray
Mumbai, Nov 15: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray has said anyone who threatens the workers of his party during the ongoing election campaign will be "made to sleep on ice slab", sparking a war of words with rival Sena leader Ramdas Kadam.
Speaking in Dapoli in coastal Maharashtra on Thursday, he dubbed as "traitors" Kadam and his son, local MLA Yogesh Kadam, who belong to the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Thackeray, a former state minister, was speaking at a campaign rally ahead of the November 20 assembly elections.
"It is my responsibiity to make anyone who threatens you (Sena UBT workers) sleep on ice slab because we are forming the next government," he said.
Notably, forcing a person to lie on an ice slab was once known as a way of custodial torture.
Hitting back, Ramdas Kadam, a former Leader of Opposition in the legislative council, said his son was Aaditya Thackeray's friend when they were in the same party, but Aaditya later expelled people close to them in Dapoli.
Despite being the local MLA, Yogesh was sidelined during the Dapoli municipal council polls, his father claimed.
It was Aaditya Thackeray who was a traitor as he took away his ministry, Ramdas Kadam further said.
The senior Kadam was environment minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government, but he did not find place in the subsequent Uddhav Thackeray-led dispensation. Aaditya handled the environment portfolio in his father's government.
In 2022, after the Sena split, the Kadams sided with the faction led by Eknath Shinde.
