The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the proceedings in multiple FIRs registered against political analyst and former CSDS director Sanjay Kumar for now-deleted social media posts alleging voter discrepancies in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra.

On August 17, Lokniti-CSDS co-director Kumar claimed on X that voter turnout in Maharashtra showed unusual shifts — a 36 to 38 per cent fall in Ramtek and Devlali and a rise of 47 per cent and 43 per cent in Nashik West and Hingna.

Opposition leaders had cited his post to question the Election Commission on “vote theft.”

Two days later, Kumar deleted the tweets and apologised, admitting his team had misread the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly data.

“I sincerely apologise for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections. 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,” he wrote on August 19.

FIRs were filed in Nashik and Nagpur against Kumar under sections related to making false statements during elections, spreading misinformation and defamation.

Kumar moved the Supreme Court, calling the cases “an abuse of state power.”

A bench of Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai and Justice N.V. Anjaria heard Kumar’s plea seeking to quash the FIRs. The bench stayed all ongoing proceedings and issued notice to the Maharashtra government.

“Normally we would not have entertained this,” CJI Gavai observed, as reported by multiple legal news websites.

Kumar’s counsel argued that his client’s record spoke for itself.

“Thirty years of conscientious service to the nation and to the world. He is highly respected. It was a mistake. He apologised. He deleted and apologised publicly, and after that, an FIR,” the lawyer reportedly said.

Kumar also contended in his petition that the FIRs were legally unsustainable.

“A tweet giving wrong information cannot form the basis of an FIR for offences such as forgery. The allegations are baseless, and the criminal sections invoked are demonstrably inapplicable to the facts and circumstances of the case.”

Kumar’s original post had triggered criticism from BJP leaders.

BJP Telangana treasurer Shanthi Kumar, sharing screenshots of the deleted post, said on X, “It gave Congress a weapon to attack election officials, and now you silently want to slip away with an apology. Sorry, but your sorry won’t repair the damage!”

“Sanjay Kumar of CSDS admits his data on Maharashtra was fake. Based on this fakery, the Congress ecosystem attacked the ECI. Will the Congress apologise for insulting Maharashtra and its great people?”, said BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla.