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The Election Commission has rejected claims made by dismissed Maharashtra Police officer Ranjeet Kasale that Electronic Voting Machines were tampered with during the 2024 Assembly election to favour Nationalist Congress Party leader Dhananjay Munde.
Describing Kasale as a “disgruntled police officer”, the poll body emphasised that “there is no possibility of removal of EVMs [from strong rooms]”. It also ordered disciplinary action against Kasale, who was last posted with the Beed cyber police.
Speaking to reporters in Pune on Thursday, Kasale claimed that Rs 10 lakh was deposited into his bank account on November 23, the day that Maharashtra went to the polls. He said he returned Rs 7.5 lakh after using Rs 2.5 lakh for personal expenses.
Kasale alleged that the payment was a bribe to buy his silence about the removal of EVMs from a strong room in the state’s Parli constituency in Beed district. The seat was won by Munde, who was later appointed as a Cabinet minister.
“I was put on duty in Parli during the polling,” Kasale says in a video that has been widely shared online by Opposition party leaders. “[Dhananjay] Munde won the election unfairly. This truth should be known to the public.”
Munde resigned in March amid growing calls for him to step down after his aide Walmik Karad was named as an accused person in the December murder of Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh.
Kasale was arrested from Pune on Friday in an unrelated case filed under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act.
Kasale alleged earlier this week that he was offered between Rs 10-50 crore to kill Karad in a staged gunfight, reported the Hindustan Times. The claim was dismissed by the Beed police.
Allegation comes from a disgruntled police officer(under suspension).Though strict legal admin. protocol in which EVMs are placed there is no possibility of removal of EVMs, report has been called from DM&SSP thro CEO considering its seriousness. Action(s) will follow the report. https://t.co/7X2Hhco7pw
— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) April 20, 2025
“[Kasale’s] allegations are aimed at disturbing public peace and tranquility, inciting people for violence against state,” the Election Commission stated in a post on X on Sunday.
The claims were also dismissed by Beed District Election Officer Avinash Pathak in a report to Maharashtra’s chief electoral officer on Saturday. A copy of the report was shared on X by the Election Commission.
“During the period of the General Assembly Elections 2024, Ranjit Kasale, the dismissed Police Sub-Inspector, was not assigned any duty related to the election process in the Parli Assembly Constituency, including during the polling process, the strong room security, or vote counting arrangements,” Pathak wrote.
“Ranjit Kasale, who is currently a dismissed Police Sub-Inspector, has a habitual tendency to make baseless, irresponsible, and inappropriate statements on social media,” Pathak added, describing the allegations as appearing to be “unfounded, baseless, and aimed at casting unwarranted doubts on the election process”.
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