PANAJI
Anand Teltumbde, Fr Stan Swamy and several other academics, human rights defenders and activists have spent over a year, some more than three years, behind bars in the infamous Bhima Koregaon violence case of December 31, 2017 with no hope of liberty as repeated bail applications have failed.
But developments in far away Washington DC may have just ignited the candle of hope for these activists earlier this week when an Indian-American coalition of human rights organisations held a US Congressional briefing which may just about tilt the balance and spur the new administration of President Joe Biden to nudge the Indian State on "deteriorating democracy".
According to noted digital news platform Scroll.in, at the US Congressional briefing it was revealed that the Bhima Koregaon violence case was clear evidence of “deteriorating democracy” in India after a new report from the United States-based digital forensics firm Arsenal Consulting revealed that a hacker had planted 22 incriminating documents in activist Rona Wilson’s laptop.
The alleged letters found on Wilson's laptop are the basis of the case against the activists who have been incarcerated under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, all of them accused of conspiring with Maoists against the state and to overthrow Narendra Modi or even assassinate him.
Influential US functionaries including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Representatives Juan Vargas, Pramila Jayapal, Senator Tim Kaine, the chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, Congressman Jim McGovern and the US State Department attended the briefing, according to Scroll.in.
Arsenal Consulting had examined an electronic copy of Wilson’s laptop on the request from his lawyers following a November 2019 court order. It's finding that 22 documents were planted in Wilson's laptop is a second such and is yet to be made public. Earlier, the same firm had in February found that 10 letters were planted by a hacker.
The Pune Police, who had initially booked the case had used these letters found in Wilson's laptop as primary evidence in the chargesheet they filed. The case has since been transferred to the National Investigative Agency (NIA).
These planted files include details of purported meetings of Maoist militants, alleged correspondence with Maoist leaders and information of money received by the Communist Party of India (Maoist), according to the new Arsenal Consulting report.
At the Congressional hearing, Arsenal's president Mark Spencer, described it as “the most serious type of case in digital forensics”.
“The size of the malware infrastructure is mind boggling. The same attacker, the same infrastructure, has been active for several years “ involving multiple campaigns, and multiple types of malware,” the Scroll.in quoted Spencer as having revealed to the US Congressional hearing.
Whether the new Arsenal Consulting Report will impact the proceedings of the case in the Special NIA Court, Mumbai is a million dollar question but for Wilson, Teltumbde and all the other co-accused it has ignited a flicker of hope that the international community led by the United States would intervene simply because of the new findings that evidence was planted.
