Koregaon-Bhima: NIA challenges laptop hacking charge by US firm

The National Investigation Agency NIA has refuted a report by a US digital forensics firm suggesting that certain incriminating materials were allegedly planted into the laptop of one of the prime accused in the KoregaonBhima caseThe NIAs denial came in an affidavit filed in the Bombay High Court dismissing contentions by the US firm Arsenal Consulting which had claimed that the damning material including a conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister and overthrowing the government was planted in the laptop of the accused Rona J WilsonThe affidavit came in response to Wilsons plea in February seeking setting up of a Special Investigation Team comprising retired Supreme Court or High Court judges legal and digital experts to probe the alleged planting of fake documents in his laptop over a 22month period a stay on the proceedings against him and his immediate releaseHowever the NIA has contended that Wilsons plea was not maintainable and the Arsenal Consulting had no locus standi to give such opinion without the courts permission when the trial against Wilson and 15 other activists academicians Dalits etc was still pendingBesides Wilson another 15 persons were arrested in countrywide swoops in 2018 including P Varavara Rao Sudhir Dhawale Surendra Gadling Anand Teltumbde Gautam Navlakha Jyoti Jagtap Ramesh Gaichor Shona Sen Arun Ferreira Sagar Gorkhe Mahesh Raut Sudha Bharadwaj Vernon Gonsalves Fr Stan Swamy and Hany Babu facing charges under the dreaded UAPA ActHitting back at the Wilson the NIA said in the affidavit that it was for Wilson to explain how his laptop was allegedly hacked to plant 10 letters when it was in his possession from June 13 2016 onwards and so he could not blame the probe agencies which entered the picture only much laterTerming his allegations as vague not giving the names of the alleged cyberhackers the NIA argued that Wilsons contentions were based on Arsenal Consultings report which is not a part of the chargesheet and hence his plea should be dismissedAfter hearing Wilsons plea a division bench of Justice SS Shinde and Justice Manish Pitale had directed the NIA to file its reply by April 29 and now the matter will come up for further hearing on May 4In midFeb Arsenal Consultings report claiming that a malware attack had taken place on Wilsons laptop in June 2016 had created a sensationAmong other things the report said that Wilsons laptop was under surveillance and 52 documents of which 10 were probed by the US firm were delivered in a hidden folder including one a day before his arrest on April 17 2018The NIA has pleaded that the court should not consider Arsenal Consultings report which it NIA has not accepted though the trial court could look into it at the relevant stage laterInstead the NIA stated an alternative remedy that Wilson could move the trial court for discharge instead of seeking quashing of the chargesheet against himArsenal Consulting had prepared its report after Wilsons lawyers requested help of American Bar Association ABA to conduct an independent forensic analysis of the clone copy of electronic copies given to him after the NIA chargesheet was filedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever