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Will be reporting live for @TheQuint from a press conference in London at 5:30 PM IST (12 noon GMT) where a US-based tech expert claims he will be able to prove Indian #EVMs can be hacked. Will he be able to back up his claims? thequint.com/videos/news-vi…
We will be going live on @TheQuint 's YouTube channel at 5:30 PM IST youtube.com/channel/UCSaf-…
And here's the @TheQuint 's live blog with updates, reactions, and more on the press conference. Stay tuned as we find out whether Indian #EVMs can be tampered with. thequint.com/news/india/evm…
The expert's name is Syed Shuja. He worked for the ECIL from 2009-2014. He is not present here because he was attacked four days ago. @TheQuint
The Election Commission was invited to be here but are not present. Political parties were also invited, but only @KapilSibal from the Congress is here. @TheQuint
Shuja claims that he was part of a team which designed the EVMs used in the 2014 elections. He says that in the April 2014 they realised signals were being emitted from the machines during the Lok Sabha elections. @TheQuint
They tried to set up a meeting with BJP leaders, thinking they could blackmail the BJP with what they knew. @TheQuint
MASSIVE CLAIM: The expert says when he and his team went to meet a BJP leader in a Hyderabad suburb, good eye team was shot. Shuja was also shot, but survived. @TheQuint
Shuja then escaped. He says the 2014 elections were "absolutely rigged. UP, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, all were rigged". Says the EVMs could be disrupted using a low frequency signal @TheQuint
Shuja says he and some others were able to interrupt the BJP signals in the Delhi elections in 2015, which allowed the AAP to win. @TheQuint
Shuja clarifies that he and his team were instructed by ECIL to find out if EVMs could be hacked, and find out how to do this. Says BJP leader Gopinath Munde knew about this, and was killed soon after taking oath because of this. @TheQuint
He also says the NIA officer investigating Munde's death (Tanzil Ahmed) was planning to file an FIR noting he'd been murdered, but was himself killed. @TheQuint
MASSIVE CLAIMS: Shuja says he met a famous Indian journalist , implied to be Arnab Goswami, and told him the whole story. He also says 12 other political parties, including Congress, SP and BSP approached him to show them how to hack EVMs. @TheQuint
Shuja says he is in the US because he was able to claim asylum there. To get asylum, he submitted proof which he claims is with the US authorities. @TheQuint
Shuja says EVMs have been hacked since 2014 as well. Says if his people hadn't intercepted the BJP attempts to hack the transmissions in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, they would have won those states as well. @TheQuint
Says the Telangana elections saw massive rigging. Says if votes and VVPATs for all votes are compared, there will be massive discrepancies. @TheQuint
Shuja also claims Reliance is assisting the BJP. Says the Congress approved sale of the modulators needed to hack these EVMs to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group in 2012-13. @TheQuint
Questions being asked from the press right now. In response to a question, Shuja says he will provide the evidence he submitted to the US authorities for his asylum application to journalists. @TheQuint
When asked if AAP approached him to hack elections, he says they approached him to be able to demonstrate to the world that this could be done @TheQuint
Another huge claim: Shuja claims Gauri Lankesh agreed to run the story for him, but she was killed. @TheQuint
Shuja says Gauri Lankesh filed an RTI to find out who manufactured cables used in the EVMs. It was after this that she was killed. @TheQuint
Asked a question, Shuja says Congress lost 201 seats in the 2014 elections because of tampering. @TheQuint
