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Journalism of Courage
A day after Sanjay Kumar, co-director of Lokniti, a research programme at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), withdrew a post relating to the Maharashtra elections citing data “error” and apologised on the platform X, police in Nagpur and Nashik registered FIRs against him on complaints from two Tehsildars.
Also Wednesday, the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), which operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Education and supports the CSDS, issued a show cause notice to the CSDS, asking it to explain within seven days why its grant-in-aid should not be withdrawn. The ICSSR flagged what it called multiple “irregularities”, including “manipulation” of data and sharing it with the media to malign the reputation of the Election Commission of India.
On August 17, Kumar put out a post stating that Ramtek and Devlali in Maharashtra had shown a 36-38% decrease in the number of voters between the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Maharashtra.
On Tuesday, he apologised for the post. “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,” Kumar said.
The FIR in Nagpur was registered on a complaint from the Ramtek tehsildar while the Nashik FIR was based on a complaint from Nashik’s Nayab Tehsildar who accused Kumar of circulating “false and misleading” voter data about the Devlali (SC) Assembly constituency.
Nayab Tehsildar Praveena Shekhar Tadvi, who oversees election-related work in Devlali, said she was instructed by the state election office to take action and, accordingly, the FIR was registered.
The Nashik district election office, in a statement on X, said, “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 of all citizens to verify the info only from the ECI website.”
According to the complaint filed by the Ramtek Tehsildar, the CSDS’s claim was false, misleading citizens and voters.
In both FIRs, Kumar has been booked under multiple BNS sections including Section 175 (false election information), Section 353 (1) (B) (statements conducing to public mischief), Section 212 (false information to a public servant), Section 340 (use of forged documents or electronic records as genuine), and Section 356 (defamation).
Meanwhile, the ICSSR show cause notice, flagging media reports of people in CSDS questioning the credibility of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and also “manipulating data” in relation to the Maharashtra elections, asked the CSDS to reveal the source of funding of these studies.
Contacted by The Indian Express, Kumar declined to comment on the show cause notice.
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