How 2 Engineers Hariprasad (Dropout) & Rahul Mehta (IIT Delhi) are exposing EVMs in India?

1. In 2001, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used on a large scale in the State Assembly elections of Tamil Nadu, Kerala & West Bengal.

2. From day one, many engineers, voters raised concerns that large-scale vote manipulation was possible through EVMs, arguing that only 5-10 dishonest insiders could manipulate 20% to 30% of the votes.

3. The ECI challenged critics to “hack” the machines. However, activists never claimed “hacking” was the issue. They consistently argued it was a case of inside tampering, not hacking.

4. Their demand was simple: “Give us one machine, We will show how votes can be manipulated on that very machine.”

5. For nearly a decade, the ECI did not provide physical access to the machines for audit/verification nor addressed the specific allegation of possible inside tampering.

6. In 2010, technologist Hari Prasad stole the EVM from ECI’s office and along with collaborators, published a research paper and video demonstrating how dishonest insiders could manipulate votes via EVMs on a large scale.

7. Hari Prasad was arrested and jailed. Though public pressure secured his release on bail, his company and career suffered heavily due to harassment. Paid media buried his work, hence many of you must be hearing this name for the first time today.

8. The matter reached the courts and in 2013 the Supreme Court acknowledged Hariprasad’s video and the risk of manipulation in EVMs. SC requested ECI to introduce VVPAT machines.

9. So for nearly a decade between 1999 to 2013, ECI’s policy denied physical access to EVMs. Fair? Democratic?

10. Now from 2014 onwards, for another decade, ECI has denied voters access to new VVPAT machines.

11. Activist Rahul Chimanbhai Mehta from IIT Delhi sent a demand draft of ₹40,000 to ECI requesting a VVPAT, but request was not accepted.

12. In response, Rahul Mehta built his own prototype using ECI manuals, demonstrating how paper votes can be manipulated in VVPATs through mechanisms like “black glass” & “light sensor”

13. Even today, ECI does not permit any voter, engineer to touch or audit an actual EVM-VVPAT machine, despite India having 18 lakh such machines in use.

14. Paid media frames debates in terms of ‘hacking,’ whereas the risk lies in potential inside tampering.

15. EVMs are NOT decentralised –> 15 days before elections –> Candidate Names & Symbols are loaded into EVMs. At that point all EVMs get connected to a BEL laptop which is connected to a centralised server.

So the real question, as a voter do you trust the EVMs?

Why paid media talks about everything under the sun from electoral bonds to vote chori but buries these 3 words?

Hariprasad || Rahul Mehta || Inside Tampering

Have you heard these names before?

Watch these videos below!

(𝟭) 𝗠𝗮𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗺𝗮 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗮𝗱 𝗘𝗩𝗠 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸: https://www.indiaevm.org/

(𝟐) 𝐄𝐕𝐌 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐆𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎 𝐛𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐡𝐮𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐛𝐡𝐚𝐢 𝐌𝐞𝐡𝐭𝐚, 𝐈𝐈𝐓 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐡𝐢: https://youtu.be/VIBxCkxnOfo?feature=shared

(𝟯) 𝗘𝗩𝗠 𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗚𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗦 𝗗𝗘𝗠𝗢 𝗯𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗻 𝗞𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗿 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮: https://youtu.be/9_heOCFXzTY?feature=shared

(𝟰) 𝗙𝗔𝗤𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗩𝗠 𝗯𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗻 𝗞𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗿 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮: https://youtu.be/AzGzxgn6_rA?si=I-z8wlOvRyCf656O

(𝟱) 𝗘𝗩𝗠 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗯𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝗵𝘂𝗹 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗯𝗵𝗮𝗶 𝗠𝗲𝗵𝘁𝗮: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1At3VVisKx/

(6) 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗘𝗩𝗠𝘀? 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 : https://youtu.be/OAMOWy-mBj4?si=Dq0MoNWu6iweQidE

Timestamp: August 2025