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Month: February 2021

The Making Of Sharjeel Usmani and His Speech At Elgar Parishad

The Making Of Sharjeel Usmani and His Speech At Elgar Parishad

The Wire / by Betwa Sharma

The 23-year-old former student of AMU is facing charges of sedition for his speech. He says he is fighting for his “fair share in Indian society”.
When Sharjeel Usmani was invited to speak at the Elgar Parishad event on January 30 in Pune, the 23-year-old did not think twice before saying yes. He was undeterred by the fact that over a dozen activists and thinkers had been jailed since the event was first held on December 31, 2017, to mark 200 years of the historic battle in which the Mahar regiment of Dalit soldiers defeated the Brahmin Peshwas. He was undeterred by the fact that he had already been charged for attempt to murder, rioting and promoting communal disharmony, following the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and spent two months in jail last year.
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Also read: The Making Of Sharjeel Usmani and His Speech At Elgar Parishad (Feb 2021)

Frame Up Of Indian Political Prisoners Revealed – New edition of Colors of the Cage

Frame Up Of Indian Political Prisoners Revealed – New edition of Colors of the Cage

By Common Notions

Colors of the Cage: Memoirs of an Indian Prison
by Arun Ferreira
foreword by Naresh Fernandes
introduction by Siddhartha Deb
February 2021

As Common Notions publishes the new edition of Colors of the Cage (2021) by political prisoner and human rights activist Arun Ferreira, news is breaking that makes it abundantly clear that, just like his earlier arrests, his current detention is based on falsehood and political repression …
In May 2007, Arun Ferreira was picked up at a railway station in western India, detained by the court, and condemned to prison for an expanding list of crimes: criminal conspiracy, murder, possession of arms, and rioting, among others added during his detention. In one of the most notorious prisons in India, he was constantly abused and tortured. Over the next several years as he began to write Colors of the Cage, each of the ten cases slapped against him fell apart. At long last, acquitted of all charges, he prepared to reunite with his family.
Ferreira refused to surrender hope and continued to fight for his freedom. He succeeded and walked out of the prison in 2014 and then used his prison experience to become a lawyer for other political activists. In 2018, he was arrested once again in what is shaping up to be a major frame up. His next hearing is February 28th.
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Also watch: Video: Arun Ferreira speaks about Life in an Indian Prison (en | 12:51 min | 2014)

The Bhima Koregaon Forensic Report: FAQs answered by Prof. Jedidiah Crandall

The Bhima Koregaon Forensic Report: FAQs answered by Prof. Jedidiah Crandall

The Bhima Koregaon Forensic Report: FAQs answered by Prof. Jedidiah Crandall

17/02/2021

… In a statement to The Washington Post the NIA had stated that it had found no malware on Wilson’s computer and other government spokespersons have attempted to label the forensic report as a “distortion.” Media outlets close to the government have attempted to cast aspersions on the report by suggesting that the cloned hard drive was tampered with as it was being transported from India to Boston.
Prof. Jedadiah Crandall from Arizona State University, who is one of the technical experts who has reviewed the Arsenal report in detail has said “to call the forensic report a distortion is unfortunate”. Prof Crandall emphatically added “The Arsenal report conclusively establishes that NetWire was the malware used for incriminating document delivery. There is no room for interpretation or doubt about this.”
To demystify all the technical details, Prof. Jedadiah Crandall has answered the frequently asked questions to help us understand the Bhima Koregaon Forensic Report.
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Surveillance on Rona Wilson Aggressive, Long Time Period Very Unusual: Forensics Firm Head

16/02/2021

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

Last week, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm, Arsenal Consulting, released a damning report which posed serious questions about the credibility of the letters that were allegedly found in the computer and other gadgets of arrested prisoners’ rights activist Rona Wilson.
Arsenal Consulting’s director Mark Spencer discussed the findings and his impression of the attack in detail in an interview with The Wire.
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Chorus demanding release of activists grows / Stan Swamy told NIA about planting of fake evidence

Chorus demanding release of activists grows / Stan Swamy told NIA about planting of fake evidence

Family members of Bhima Koregaon accused, cyber experts raise questions on investigation following reports of ‘planted evidence’

17/02/2021

TwoCircles.net / by Suprakash Majumdar

Besides demanding the release of all the accused, the speakers pointed out that the Arsenal report has raised some serious questions such as, “Why couldn’t the government and the forensic lab find evidence of hacking and if they did, why did they ignore it? Why did NIA not verify the authenticity of the files as they were the primary evidence in the case?”
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Chorus demanding release of activists grows

17/02/2021

Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia

Legal and tech experts shed light on future course of case in wake of Arsenal revelations of planted evidence.
Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy, a group of activists, organised a webinar to discuss the possible impact of the recent revelations made by Arsenal Consulting, an American digital forensics firm in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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Stan Swamy told NIA about planting of fake evidence, says his colleague

17/02/2021

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The statement came in the wake of a forensics report that found key evidence against the accused in the case was planted using a malware.
A colleague of human rights activist Stan Swamy, who was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case in October, said on Tuesday that the jailed activist had told the National Investigation Agency at least four times that fake evidence had been planted on his computer, reported PTI.
Solomon, the director of Ranchi’s Bagaicha Social Centre where Swamy worked, made the statement at a press briefing.
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Watch whole press briefing @YouTube: Decoding the Arsenal Report – Curious Case of Questionable Evidence in the Case (Feb 16, 2020)

Video: Decoding the Arsenal Report – Curious Case of Questionable Evidence in the Case / Press Release

Video: Decoding the Arsenal Report – Curious Case of Questionable Evidence in the Case / Press Release

Video: Decoding the Arsenal Report – Curious Case of Questionable Evidence in the Case

16/02/2021


en | 1h 36min | 2021

By Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy

PRESS CONFERENCE
Speakers
Jedidiah Crandall: Associate Professor, Biodesign Center for Biocomputing, Security and Society; Associate Professor, School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University Sandeep Shukla: Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kanpur
Adv. Mihir Desai: Senior Advocate Bombay High Court Lawyer, PUCL
Father Solomon: Director, Bagaicha, Ranchi, Fr Stan Swamy’s colleague
Sagar Abraham Gonsalves: Vernon Gonsalves’ son
Watch @ YouTube


The NIA’s ‘No Malware Found’ Response to New Forensic Report Points to Ineptitude
Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy Case Must be Quashed in Light of Explosive Forensic Evidence

16/02/2021

By Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy

PRESS RELEASE
On February 10, 2021 the Bhima Koregaon defense team filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking the release of Rona Wilson and the quashing of all charges against him. The petition was filed in light of startling new evidence of a forensic analysis that establishes that the top 10 files used to implicate Mr. Wilson with conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister and several other charges were fabricated and had been planted on Mr. Wilson’s hard drive by a cyber attacker using the NetWire malware. The forensic analysis was conducted by one of the world’s leading forensic analysis firms, Boston-based Arsenal Consulting and the story was first reported by The Washington Post on February 10.

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How UAPA curtails personal liberty, undermines fair trial

How UAPA curtails personal liberty, undermines fair trial

Hindustan Times / by Gautam Bhatia

To stop UAPA from continuing to be the tool of repression that it has become, it is vital that the courts either strike down — or substantially read down — this section, and ensure that years in jail do not become an automatic consequence of the police’s (read: the State’s) decision to charge inconvenient opponents under this law.
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Bhima Koregaon hacking allegations: What Arsenal analysis of Rona Wilson’s PC says

Bhima Koregaon hacking allegations: What Arsenal analysis of Rona Wilson’s PC says

Firstpost / by Praveen Swami

Arsenal Consulting’s findings will, obviously, be contested by the police’s Forensic Science Laboratory; that is the normal back-and-forth of any criminal trial.
Last week, US-based digital forensics firm Arsenal Consulting released the results of its investigation into the computer of Rona Wilson — one of 16 people facing trial in the Bhima Koregaon case. The evidence assembled by prosecutors against the accused include letters containing, among other things plans to buy assault weapons from Nepal, and a plot assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The analysis raises questions about not just the authenticity of those documents, but also the possible manipulation of Wilson’s computer by still-unidentified hackers.
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Calls discontinued, only visits for kin of Elgar Parishad accused

Calls discontinued, only visits for kin of Elgar Parishad accused

The Times of India / by Shishir Arya

Kin of two Elgar Parishad accused lodged in Taloja and Byculla jails in Mumbai say the facility to call inmates has been discontinued abruptly from this month. Phone calling that was allowed since July as a post Covid measure came as a small luxury. At times, even video calls could be made. Visits were stopped due to the pandemic.
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Colin Gonsalves interview: Policemen who pursue malafide cases should face crippling fines

Colin Gonsalves interview: Policemen who pursue malafide cases should face crippling fines

Scroll.in / by Smitha Nair

The noted lawyer speaks about the need for a legal framework to make the state pay for violating civil liberties by way of wrongful prosecutions.
The recent spate of FIRs invoking sedition charges against journalists for allegedly sharing unverified information on social media about the death of a protestor during the farmers’ tractor rally on January 26 has prompted a former Supreme Court judge to call for an interventionist approach by the apex court to deal with the “rampant abuse of the criminal justice system”.
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Put an end to using government agencies to stifle free press in India: All India Kisan Sabha

Put an end to using government agencies to stifle free press in India: All India Kisan Sabha


Poster by BKU Ekta Ugrahan

The Caravan / by All India Kisan Sabha

On 14 February, the All India Kisan Sabha issued a statement condemning the raid on Newsclick. The statement is reproduced below.
… In the Bhima Koregaon case, evidences were manufactured to put innocent people in sedition cases and keep them in jail for years without trial.
Read full statement