ECIL says 'EVM expert' Syed Shuja not its employee

The Election Commission of India moved swiftly to quell doubts about the integrity of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the wake of controversial claims made by self-proclaimed cyber expert Syed Shuja. The latter had claimed, in London, that EVMs have been manipulated by parties in the past. The Election Commission had lodged an FIR against Shuja, even as the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), one of the two companies that manufactures the machines, denied his claims that he was ever an employee of the company.

The commission also got its technical experts committee to reaffirm that the EVMs were stand-alone machines that cannot be manipulated through wireless means. In the FIR filed with New Delhi district police, the commission said Shuja's claims are violative of IPC, particularly section 505(1)(b), which pertains to statements conducive to public mischief. The section covers “Whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report—with the intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquility.”

The Hyderabad-based ECIL put out a press release denying Shuja's claims that he worked in the company during 2009-2014. “It is certified, from records of ECIL, that Syed Shuja has neither been on the rolls of ECIL as a regular employee nor was he, in any way, associated in the design and deployment of EVMs in ECIL produced between 2009 and 2014.”

The ECIL also wrote to the commission, clarifying that Shuja was not an employee of the company. The commission's technical experts committee said the CMDs of Bharat Electronics Limited and ECIL—the sole manufacturers of EVMs and now also VVPATs—reaffirmed that all the committee-prescribed Standard Operating Procedures are scrupulously adhered to and observed. It, however, also said that while the EVMs might malfunction sometimes like any other machine, due to component failures, and stop working, it will not record any vote incorrectly. “It is reaffirmed that ECI-EVMs cannot be tampered with,” the committee said.