Former CEC Achal Kumar Jyoti did not admit to EVM hacking on orders from PM Modi during his tenure
A post is being shared on social media claiming that former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Achal Kumar Jyoti had admitted that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) hacking was done at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his tenure. This post claims that former CEC Achal Kumar Jyoti was a Chairman of an EVM chip manufacturing company and had been the Secretary to PM Modi. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Former Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti admitted the EVM hacking at the behest of PM Narendra Modi during his tenure.
Fact: Achal Kumar Jyoti had never acknowledged the tampering of EVMs during and after his tenure as the Chief Election Commissioner of India. In 2017, when questions were raised about the EVM hacking during Gujarat Elections, Achal Kumar Jyoti assured to media and the public that no EVMs were tampered during the 2017 Gujarat Elections. Achal Kumar Jyoti had never been the Chairman of the Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) firms that manufacture Electronic Voting Machines in India. Earlier, when a similar message was attributed to former CEC T. S. Krishnamurthy, the Election Commission of India and PIB issued a press note clarifying it as a fake message. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched to check whether former Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti had made any such statement admitting about EVM hacking in his tenure, we could not find any press reports confirming this information. In 2017, when questions were raised about the EVM hacking during Gujarat Elections, Achal Kumar Jyoti assured to media and the public that no such EVM hacking had taken place during the 2017 Gujarat Elections. Achal Kumar Jyoti had never accused PM Modi of directing him to hack EVMs for the benefit of BJP.
Achal Kumar Jyoti worked as the Chief Election Commissioner of India from 06 July 2017 to 22 January 2018. A 1975 batch civil servant of the Gujarat cadre, Achal Kumar Jyoti has served as the Gujarat Chief Secretary and in other top bureaucratic positions including as Chairman of the Kandla Port Trust and Managing Director of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL). But Achal Kumar Jyoti had never been the Chairman of the Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), the only two firms that manufacture Electronic Voting Machines in India. The ‘Dainik Bhaskar’ news website published an article confirming these viral posts attributed to Achal Kumar Jyoti as fake. Rajiv Kumar is the present Chief Election Commissioner of India.
Earlier, when a Hindi newspaper clipping was being shared with a similar narrative that former CEC T. S. Krishnamurthy had accused BJP of EVM hacking, the Election Commission of India and Press Information Bureau (PIB) issued a press note clarifying it as a fake message. T. S. Krishnamurthy issued a statement clarifying it as an utterly false and mischievous message that was circulated to create a wrong impression in the ensuing elections.
To sum it up, former CEC Achal Kumar Jyoti did not admit that EVM hacking was done during his tenure following the orders from PM Narendra Modi.