Top Court Relief For Psephologist Who Apologised For Error In Voter Data

The Supreme Court today paused FIRs filed against psephologist Sanjay Kumar amid the massive row over his apology for two posts that alleged significant voter additions and deletions in Maharashtra's voter lists.

Mr Kumar's counsel raised the issue before a bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice NV Anjaria. "This (is a) person with impeccable integrity. Thirty years of service to the nation and to the world. He's highly respected. It was a mistake. He apologised. He deleted and apologised publicly," the counsel said, after which the Chief Justice paused the proceedings.

The psephologist, who is associated with Delhi-based research body Centre of Studies for Developing Societies, had claimed that the number of voters in the Nashik West and Hingna Assembly segments rose by 47 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively, between the Lok Sabha election last and the Maharashtra polls earlier this year. He also claimed that the number of voters sharply fell in Ramtek and Devlali seats by 38 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively.

Congress leaders, who have accused the ruling BJP and the Election Commission of India of a vote fraud, latched on to Kumar's post and claimed that they vindicate their charge.

But two days later, the psephologist apologised and deleted the posts. "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 in a post on X.

This prompted the BJP to attack the Congress. The ruling party accused CSDS of putting out unverified data to feed the Congress's "fake narrative".

Senior BJP leader and the party's IT head, Amit Malviya, said the institution Leader of the Opposition, Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi relied on to make his allegations has now admitted that its figures were wrong. "Where does this leave Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, which brazenly targeted the Election Commission and went so far as to brand genuine voters as fake? Shameful," Mr Malviya said, demanding an apology from the Congress leader.

Amid the row, police in Maharashtra's Nagpur and Nashik registered FIRs against psephologist Sanjay Kumar under sections linked to false information and election-related violations.