Fact Check: No, EVMs were not stolen during Bihar elections

Hyderabad: Photos of a man carrying an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) through a dense forest has gone viral on social media after the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) alleged foul play in the recent Bihar elections.

Many social media users claimed the man in the photo was stealing the EVM. A Twitter user wrote, "EVM machines should be checked again, will Nitish Kumar go to jail? Bihar is asking, where is he taking the EVM machine after stealing them? Modi commission (reference to the Election Commission) is a thief." (archive link)

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Fact Check:

The claim that the man was stealing an EVM during the recent Bihar elections is FALSE.

NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found two tweets from October 2019 that stated that the photos were from Raigad, Maharashtra. These photos were taken last year in October during the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections.

We found a tweet by a Twitter handle DEO Raigad that read, "Employees arriving at polling stations in remote areas like Kalkarai. We are very proud of you."

We also found another tweet by the District Information Office of Raigad. It read, "Staff reaching polling stations in remote areas like Kalkarai. We are very proud of you."

Evidently, images of Election Commission officials carrying EVMs to remote areas during the 2019 Maharashtra polls is being falsely shared as EVM's stolen during the recent Bihar elections. Hence, the claim is FALSE.