The District Election Officers (DEOs) of both Nagpur and Nashik confirmed that Kumar had shared misleading data about voter numbers for the 2024 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections, specifically for the Ramtek and Devlali constituencies
Sanjay Kumar had issued a public apology on X on Tuesday. File Pic/X
The police in Nagpur and Nashik districts of Maharashtra have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Sanjay Kumar, co-director of Lokniti-CSDS, after he shared a controversial social media post related to the Maharashtra elections, reported the ANI.
Officials said that the FIR includes multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), including those connected to spreading false information and election-related violations.
The complaint was filed by the Tehsildar of Ramtek, and investigations are ongoing, the said.
"We have received a complaint and filed an FIR. We are reviewing the seriousness of the charges and will soon ask Sanjay Kumar to join the investigation," said Harsh Poddar, Superintendent of Police (Nagpur Rural), speaking to ANI.
The District Election Officers (DEOs) of both Nagpur and Nashik confirmed that Kumar had shared misleading data about voter numbers for the 2024 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections, specifically for the Ramtek and Devlali constituencies.
In response, Sanjay Kumar had issued a public apology on X on Tuesday.
I sincerely apologize for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections.
— Sanjay Kumar (@sanjaycsds) August 19, 2025
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.
"I sincerely apologise for the tweets posted regarding the Maharashtra elections. An error occurred while comparing the data of 2024 LS and 2024 AS. The post has since been removed," he wrote.
He explained that the mistake happened due to a misreading of rows in the dataset by his team and stressed that he had no intention of spreading misinformation.
Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) has issued a show-cause notice to Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), questioning the integrity of the data used.
The incident has also taken a political turn. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for using the same data to raise doubts about the 2024 elections.
CM Fadnavis called Rahul Gandhi a “serial liar” and demanded an apology, saying, “This is a fact that data was given by CSDS. Based on that, Rahul Gandhi made false allegations against the Election Commission and our government. Now, CSDS has accepted their mistake and deleted the data.”
Kumar further clarified the source of the error in a statement to ANI, “We mistakenly compared data from wrong constituencies — 125 (Nashik West) with 124 and 50 (Hingna) with 49 -- which led to the confusion.”
The matter has sparked fresh debates around the use of data in elections, responsibility of researchers, and the impact of social media posts during sensitive times.
(with ANI inputs)
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