FIR filed against psephologist Sanjay Kumar, accused of spreading false information

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Maharashtra Police has registered a FIR against psephologist Sanjay Kumar, affiliated with Lokniti-CSDS, for spreading "false information" and election-related violations.

The complaint has been filed under multiple sections of the BNS, including Sections 175, 353(1)(b), 212, and 340(1)(2), for his controversial social media posts related to the Maharashtra assembly elections.

Earlier, Kumar apologised for his post on the Maharashtra elections, in which claimed a significant reduction in the number of voters in two assembly constituencies compared to the Lok Sabha election held just months earlier.

"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," the Lokniti-CSDS co-director posted on X.

He had claimed that in the assembly constituency 59 (Ramtek), the number of voters in 2024 stood at 4,66,203 in the Lok Sabha polls and 2,86,931 in the assembly polls, claiming "-38.45% decrease in voters".

In his second claim, Kumar had said that in the assembly constituency (Devlali), the number of voters in the Lok Sabha was 4,56,072, and during the assembly elections it came down to 2,88,141, claiming "a 36.82% decrease".