Two FIRs against CSDS psephologist Sanjay Kumar for 'misleading' info

Nagpur/Mumbai: Two FIRs were registered against psephologist and CSDS professor Sanjay Kumar on charges of "false statement in connection with an election" over his claims regarding the number of voters in two assembly segments in Maharashtra polls compared to the 2024 general elections.

The cases were registered in Nagpur district and Nashik on Wednesday, police said.

Kumar's post had claimed a significant dip in voter numbers in two assembly seats compared to the 2024 general elections, which were held nearly six months apart. He later deleted it on Tuesday and in another post, apologised for posting "erroneous data" on the microblogging platform.

An FIR was registered against Kumar on a complaint lodged by the tehsildar of Ramtek in Nagpur district in connection with his claims on the difference in the number of voters for the Hingna assembly constituency, a senior police officer told PTI.

He was booked under sections 175 (False statement in connection with an election), 353 (1) B (Statements conducting to public mischief), 212 (providing false information to a public servant), and 340 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita.

Another case was registered at Sarkarwada police station in Nashik city on a complaint lodged by the Nayab-Tahasildar of Deolali assembly constituency in Nashik district.

The official said Kumar, in a post dated August 11, 2025, mentioned that the number of voters in the Deolali constituency during (2024) Lok Sabha election was 4,56,072, whereas the actual number was 2,76,902.

Kumar purportedly mentioned the voters' population in Deolali during the assembly elections (held in November 2024) was 2,88,141, which is misleading, the official said.

He has been booked under relevant sections of the BNS for spreading misleading information related to elections on social media platforms, the official added.

A senior official from the Nashik collectorate said the administration has corroborative data to substantiate its claim that the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) had presented a misleading picture of the voter numbers by using an incorrect dataset.

"The FIR has been filed, and it is now for the police to decide on issuing notices to the accused person, Sanjay Kumar. If the police seek data for corroboration or for their investigation, we have prepared it and are ready to share it with them," the official, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.

Pravina Tadwi, Nayab Tehsildar of the Deolali Assembly segment in Nashik, said CSDS had shown a higher number of voters in the Lok Sabha list while the Assembly voter figures were accurate.

"With such wrong information being circulated among the people, we have filed a complaint with the police here in Nashik today," she told reporters after filing the FIR.

Kumar's post had claimed a significant decrease in voter numbers in two assembly seats in state polls compared to the 2024 general elections, which were held nearly six months apart.

While the original post was deleted, Kumar had taken to X to post an apology, saying, " I sincerely apologise for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections. An error occurred while comparing the data of 2024 LS and 2024 AS. The data in the row was misread by our Data team. The tweet has since been removed. I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation".

Kumar is a psephologist and a professor with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), which is supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), the government's apex body for research in social and human sciences.