Bombay High Court Grants Default Bail To Sudha Bharadwaj In Bhima Koregaon Case; Refuses Bail To 8 Other Accused  by Sharmeen Hakim 2021-12-01 https://www.livelaw.in/amp/top-stories/bombay-high-court-grants-default-bail-to-sudha-bharadwaj-in-bhima-koregaon-case-refuses-bail-to-8-other-accused-186679

The High Court accepted the petitioners' argument that the Additional Sessions Court, Pune, which took cognizance of the chargesheet filed by the NIA and also extended the period of detention of accused beyond 90 days as per Section 43D(2) of the UAPA, was not competent to do so. Because, the Pune Sessions Court was not notified as a Special Court under the NIA Act. Also, there was another Special NIA Court in existence in Pune at the relevant time. ..However, the High Court added that this irregularity will not result in vitiation of the cognizance taken on the chargesheet.,,

As far as the other 8 applicants are concerned, the High Court noted that none of them had filed an application seeking default bail at the time of expiry of 90 days of their detention.

Their case was premised on the argument that the cognizance of the chargesheet itself is vitiated, as the Court had no competence, and hence it should be presumed that no chargesheet has been filed as regards them. This was not accepted by the High Court on the basis of the principle that mere irregularity in taking cognizance will not vitiate the proceedings.

Full Judgement https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/sudha-bharadwaj-v-nia-405097.pdf 

An open letter from Sahba Husain

Gautam Navlakha, nearly 70, is one of the oldest of the Bhima Koregaon arrestees, who was shifted to the “Anda Circle” (high security) from the barracks on October 12, 2021. Additionally, his telephone calls to me and his lawyers, his lifeline to the outside world, have been discontinued on the pretext that physical mulaquats have resumed in jail.

I, his partner, Sahba Husain, am over 70, and I live in Delhi. Travelling to Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai frequently to meet him for the alloted ten minutes is difficult and Gautam’s only contact with me is through the two calls he was allowed every week to me that enabled me to send him articles of need, including medicines, books etc. With discontinuance of phone calls, all this will now depend on letters that take a minimum of two weeks to reach me.

Apart from the calls to me, regular access to lawyers through phone calls is an essential facility for undertrial prisoners. To deprive any undertrial prisoner of this effective and efficient mode of securing legal advice and help, or access to family, is the height of unfairness.

Gautam’s fragile health and well being will be further jeopardised by this withdrawal of the phone call facility to his family and lawyers. Already, in the Anda Circle, he is deprived of daily walks in the jail’s non-concreted greener areas and fresh air, and his health has deteriorated further, making specialised medical care an absolute necessity, if he is to live to fight this unjust and false case foisted on him. Without the weekly calls to me in Delhi, and to his lawyers, his life and his defence will be severely compromised.
Gautam writes, “confinement in Anda Circle means denial of fresh air/oxygen as there is not a single tree or plant in the open space of the Circle. And we are forbidden to step outside of the Anda Circle.... In other words, we spend 16 hours out of 24 cooped inside our cell and the 8 hours we are let out we are confined to a corridor 71/2’ x 72’ for our daily walk on cemented floor surrounded by high walls all around.”
Not long ago, Stan Swamy passed away in tragic circumstances. Stan, severely debilitated by Parkinson’s Disease, had to fight for such basic needs as a straw to drink, help to move to the toilet, and medical attention. His simple desire was that in his declining state of health he should be allowed to die at home in Ranchi. Even as his prayer before the court was pending, Stan Swamy passed away in a Mumbai hospital, indeed after once telling the court that he would rather be simply left to die in jail than be taken to the hospital.

These are prisoners of conscience, who have had to face indignities and humiliation for the smallest needs, and wage court battles for basic dignities in prison. In the past, when Navlakha’s original pair of spectacles went missing, it was difficult for the replacement spectacles to reach him in time.
It is not too much to ask for these simple facilities, phone access to his lawyers and family, and some fresh air to walk in once or twice a day.

Gautam has faced his unjustified incarceration with courage and spirit. How much longer is he going to be persecuted for his views, and to what extent will the authorities go to break his spirit?

Sahba Husain

BK16 and the Incarceration of Justice, a documentary film by Karwan e Mohabbat, India http://emeets.lnwr.in/index.php/where-have-all-the-flowers-gone/1318-kamla-bhasin Directed by Anam Sheikh Commissioned for Requiem for Justice 

Pegasus Findings: Former Top Cops Call For Relook at Case Against Elgar Parishad 16  https://thewire.in/rights/pegasus-bhima-koregaon-police-officers  

Three senior retired top police officers on August 5 condemned the findings of the Pegasus Project on the possible and confirmed surveillance of several journalists, social activists, politicians and others.

They also said that the exposé has revealed that the grounds on which the 16 academics, lawyers and activists were arrested in the Elgar Parishad case could be false. 

Specifically on the Elgar Parishad case, he said, “Two events occurred that cast a shadow of doubt on the police version in the case. First, the Arsenal Consulting report, and secondly, the Pegasus reveals. Whether or not the Pegasus software was used to plant fake evidence in the accused devices should be thoroughly investigated.”

Bhima Koregaon Violence Caused By Another Group : Jaising Argues Relying On Ex-CM's Statements, Pune Police Affidavit Sharmeen Hakim 26 July 2021

https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/bhima-koregaon-violence-caused-by-another-group-jaising-argues-relying-on-ex-cms-statements-pune-police-affidavit-178184

‘REVELATIONS ON SNOOPING VINDICATE OUR STAND’ http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=111761   Kashmir Times. Dated: 7/21/2021

mobile numbers of several Elgaar Parishad accused were on a list of those selected for surveillance by an unidentified client of NSO. Such “tampering”, the relatives of the Elgaar accused say, strengthens the suspicion that the “evidence” against the detainees was planted on their electronic devices — as already suggested by American digital forensics firm Arsenal Consulting in the case of two accused.
Among the surveillance targets named by the exposé are academics Hany Babu MT, Vernon Gonsalves, Anand Teltumbde and Shoma Sen; activists Gautam Navlakha and Rona Wilson; and lawyers Arun Ferreira and Sudha Bharadwaj.

The numbers of several relatives and suspected associates of the Elgaar detainees too were on the list. They include: “Varavara Rao’s daughter Pavana; lawyer Surendra Gadling’s wife Minal Gadling, his associate lawyers Nihalsingh Rathod and Jagadish Meshram, one of his former clients Maruti Kurwatkar, who was charged in multiple cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), incarcerated for over four years and later released on bail; Bharadwaj’s lawyer Shalini Gera; Teltumbde’s friend Jaison Cooper, a Kerala-based rights activist; scholar of the Naxalite movement and Bastar-based lawyer Bela Bhatia; one of the oldest members of the Kabir Kala Manch cultural group Rupali Jadhav; and tribal rights activist Mahesh Raut’s close associate and lawyer Lalsu Nagoti,” a report in The Wire news website, which participated in the exposé, said. 

They were accused of plotting to overthrow the Modi government. The evidence was planted, a new report says. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-bhima-koregaon-activists-jailed/2021/02/10/8087f172-61e0-11eb-a177-7765f29a9524_story.html    A report from Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm says that evidence against a group of Indian activists accused of plotting to overthrow the government was planted on a laptop seized by police. 

An attacker used malware to infiltrate a laptop belonging to one of the activists, Rona Wilson, before his arrest and deposited at least 10 incriminating letters on the computer. Arsenal’s report on the Indian case does not identify the perpetrator of the cyberattack. The analysis, which has not been previously reported, was reviewed by The Washington Post. Three outside experts who reviewed the document at The Post’s request said the report’s conclusions were valid. Jaya Roy, a spokeswoman for the National Investigation Agency, the anti-terrorism authority overseeing the cases against the activists, said that the forensic analysis of Wilson’s laptop conducted by law enforcement did not show any evidence of malware on the device. She added that there was “substantial documentary and oral evidence” against the individuals charged in the case.

Akash Banerjee on the arsenal report:  https://youtube.com/embed/mhmSiQgUxSc?start=701&end=951  (~4 mins)  

Aresenal Report Filed before the the Special Judge NIA https://images.assettype.com/barandbench/2021-02/0142e0e9-962b-4f60-92cc-785a8a18fe81/NIA_v__Sudhir_Pralhad_Dhawale___Arsenal_report.pdf 
Feb 8 , 2021

Prison-rights activist Rona Wilson’s hard disk contained malware that allowed remote access https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/bhima-koregaon-case-rona-wilson-hard-disk-malware-remote-access . The Caravan conducted a cyber-forensic examination of the contents of Wilson’s hard disk, a copy of the disk that was presented in court by the Pune Police and supplied to all the accused. Our investigation revealed that the disk contained malware that can be used to remotely access the computer and plant files. We also found several other discrepancies, pointing towards manipulation of evidence in the case.

Guess who is behind the propaganda of ‘forensic report’ giving a clean chit to Urban Naxal Rona Wilson: George Soros and Canada govt https://www.opindia.com/2021/02/rona-wilson-forensic-report-propaganda-george-soros-canada-govt/  After supporting an insurrection in India and Khalistanis who have been creating chaos and anarchy in India, the same organisation now seem to have come together to extend support to Urban Naxals who are accused of waging a war against India and plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Modi.

Bhima Koregaon Case: Govt Can Find Out Who Planted Documents, Says Cyber Expert https://www.thequint.com/amp/story/news/india/father-stan-swamy-bhima-koregaon-case-cyber-attack-expert-sandeep-shukla

Sandeep Sukla: The attacker is someone who had a lot of ground intelligence and information about the people who were targeted like whom they were interacting with, what kind of computers Wilson and Gadling had in their possession. Secondly, please note that the emails through which malware was delivered on computers was through the email IDs of the people known to Wilson and Gadling. And the subject of the email ID was such that was related to their ongoing discussion or program, which made them click on it. This kind of sophisticated malware requires not just a lot of time but also a lot of money because this skill is not cheap to hire.

The Arsenal report suggests that the one/s who hacked Gadling's computer may have hacked Swamy's computer as well.

Prior to this report, Arsenal Consulting had filed two more forensic reports in the NIA Special Court that revealed that cyber attackers had planted evidence in Rona Jacob Wilson's computer, another accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. Her computer was compromised for 22 months.

The Arsenal report has concluded that the same attacker/s who planted documents/PDF files in Wilson's computer had also compromised Gadling's computer for 20 months.

The Bizarre Evidence That Put Stan Swamy & The BK 16 In Prison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuPKsG339nA  

Fr. Stan Swamy passed away after eight months in prison - conditions that exacerbated his Parkinson's. He was one of the jailed human-rights advocates also known as the Bhima Koregaon 16.

The evidence that surrounds the case is bizarre.
The Wire breaks down the story, looking into the investigation conducted by Arsenal Consulting, a Boston-based digital forensics firm that has claimed the evidence for the arrests of the activists, was planted on their computers.