New Delhi, Aug. 21 -- Two cases have been registered against psephologist Sanjay Kumar, co-director of Lokniti-CSDS (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies), in Nagpur and Nashik for allegedly spreading false information about voter data in Maharashtra through a social media post. It came a day after Kumar apologised for his post, which claimed a significant dip in voter numbers in two assembly seats in Maharashtra polls compared to the 2024 general elections, which were held nearly six months apart. "Sanjay Kumar from CSDS, has posted misleading information of voters of 59-Ramtek AC for LS-2024 and MH LA-2024, FIR is registered against him. It is requested to all citizens to verify the info only from the ECI website," the district election officer (DEO) Nagpur, said in a post on X on Wednesday. The DEO of Nashik posted a similarly-worded post, saying an FIR has been registered against Kumar for his "misleading information" over Devlali assembly constituency. The FIRs against Kumar are registered under BNS sections 175 for publishing false election statements, 353(1)(b) for spreading false information causing public mischief, 212 for giving false information to a public servant, and 340(1)(2) for using forged documents as genuine. On Tuesday, Kumar in a post on X said: "I sincerely apologize 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." Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) - the apex government body for research in the social and human sciences - on Wednesday issued a show cause notice to CSDS over the issue. It also threatened to cancel and withdraw the grant-in-aid to CSDS if the think tank fails to submit its explanation on "administrative and financial irregularities" and on "deliberate misrepresentation of facts" within seven days. In his now-deleted post, Kumar had claimed that in the Ramtek assembly constituency, the number of voters decreased from 466,203 in the Lok Sabha polls to 286,931 during the assembly elections - a dip of 38.45%. Similarly, he claimed that in Devlali, the number of voters dipped 36.82% from 456,072 in the Lok Sabha polls to 288,141 in the assembly elections. (With inputs from Sanjay Maurya)...