Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
Swamy’s lawyer has blamed the central agency and Taloja Jail authorities for the activist’s death.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the National Investigation Agency and the Maharashtra prison department to examine the medical reports of tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, who died on July 5, reported the Hindustan Times.
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13/07/2021
Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi
The plea challenging the transfer of probe in the Bhima Koregaon case from Pune Police to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is an exercise is to impede and cause obstacles in the process of investigation by central agency, the NIA submitted before the Bombay High Court.
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13/07/2021
The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal
NIA tells HC that Bhima-Koregaon case given to it because of ‘gravity of offence’
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that, “considering the gravity of the offence and its inter-State link and implications on national security, the Central government had suo motu directed the NIA to take up the investigation” in the Bhima-Koregaon case.
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13/07/2021
Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim
The Pune police that was stripped of the investigations into the Bhima-Koregaon Elgar-Parishad case by the Union government in January 2020, has filed an affidavit on the same lines as the National Investigation Agency(NIA) opposing activist Rona Wilson’s petition seeking to quash the case before the Bombay High Court.
The affidavit filed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Shrinivas Muralidhar Ghadge seeks dismissal of Wilson’s petition on grounds of maintainability, including stating that the report by USA based Arsenal Consulting is not admissible as it is not a part of any of the charge sheets filed by the investigating agencies.
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13/07/2021
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
The Pune Police said the forensic report of the US-based consultancy was not a part of the chargesheet and can be looked into by the trial court and need to be dealt with currently by the high court.
The Pune Police has recently opposed a petition filed by Rona Wilson, an accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, seeking to quash a chargesheet filed against them claiming the charges levelled were based on material that was allegedly planted on electronic devices of the activist.
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The Quint / by Poonam Agarwal
An attack of this nature requires intelligence, time and money, said Sandeep Shukla.
“It should be noted that this is one of the most serious cases involving evidence tampering that Arsenal has ever encountered…” Excerpts from Arsenal Consulting forensic report
That’s what President Mark Spencer of Arsenal Consulting, the US-based forensic agency, said about the agency’s latest report that reveals that incriminating evidence was planted in the computer of Surendra Gadling, who was arrested under UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) for alleged links with banned CPI (Maoist) group in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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Also read: Explainer: Arsenal Report on Surendra Gadling (The Leaflet, June 7, 2021)
The Indian Express / by Mohamed Thaver
The 83-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case on October 8, 2020, died in judicial custody while undergoing treatment at the hospital.
A magisterial inquiry will be conducted into the death of Father Stan Swamy, who passed away at the Holy Family hospital in Mumbai’s Bandra on Monday, officials of the Maharashtra prison department said.
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Scroll.in /by Vijayta Lalwani
Most of those imprisoned in the case are over 50 and suffer from a range of conditions.
The death of activist Stan Swamy in custody on Monday has caused palpable anxiety among the families of the other 15 people accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. The 84-year-old Jesuit priest died in a hospital in Mumbai after his plea for bail was turned down several times, despite suffering from Parkinson’s disease and later Covid-19.
Fourteen of the people accused in the case remain in prison in Maharashtra, charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for allegedly conspiring to set off caste violence in a village near Pune in 2018.
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08/07/2021
The Quint / by Karan Tripathi
Bhima Koregaon accused can milk the Arsenal report to discredit the NIA’s entire case during the trial.
A day after the death of activist Father Stan Swamy, who had been under arrest in the Bhima Koregaon case under UAPA for alleged Maoist links, a report by Arsenal Consulting, an American forensic agency, has claimed that evidence was ‘planted’ on the computer of another activist, Surendra Gadling, another accused in the case, also currently under arrest.
The malware that targeted Gadling’s computer via emails also had several other Bhima-Koregaon accused, including Stan Swamy and Sudha Bhardwaj copied on the mails, Arsenal has claimed.
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06/07/2021
The Leaflet / by Nihalsing Rathod
In light of the recent revelation that the documents on Surendra Gadling’s computer, which has been used as evidence to arrest activists under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the Bhima Koregaon case over the last three years were planted by hackers into the computer, Nihalsing Rathod explains what the report containing the revelation states, and answers questions that may cross one’s mind in light of this information.
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06/07/2021
The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha
Forensic digital investigations have raised serious questions about the Elgar Parishad investigation.
For over 20 months, lawyer and human rights defender Surendra Gadling’s computer was attacked and surveilled upon, and incriminating documents were planted on it. Gadling, one of the first people to be arrested among the 16 human rights activists, lawyers and academics in custody in the ongoing Elgar Parishad case, was cyber attacked since February 16, 2016 – two years before he was finally arrested on April 6, 2018. Fourteen significant documents, on the basis of which the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has held him in jail for over three years, were planted on his computer using a malware NetWire.
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06/07/2021
The Washington Post / by Niha Masih and Joanna Slater
The two activists were jailed in 2018 and accused of plotting an insurgency against the government. A new forensic report concludes they also shared something else: They were both victims of the same hacker who planted evidence on their computers.
The finding raises fresh doubts about a case that rights groups consider an effort to crack down on critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. More than a dozen activists have been imprisoned without trial under a stringent anti-terrorism law that rarely results in convictions.
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NDTV (July 6):
@OnReality_Check | “Indian government should name the attacker. We only analyse evidence put in our hands”: Mark G Spencer, President Arsenal Consulting, on #BhimaKoregaon case
en | 4:05min | 2021
Watch video
en | 6:41min | 2021
By The Wire Video
On Monday, 5th July, 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.
Watch video
By LawBeat (July 15):
BombayHighCourt bench led by Justice SS Shinde to hear Lawyer-Activist Sudha Bharadwaj, accused in the #BhimaKoregaon – #ElgaParishad case seeking default bail contending that the trial judge was not authorised to take cognisance of the 2019 charge sheet against her.
08/07/2021
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
In a petition seeking default bail, activist Sudha Bharadwaj said that Sessions Judge KD Vadane was an additional judge and not a designated special judge.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to produce documents to show that the judge who granted an extension to the Pune Police to file the chargesheet in the Bhima Koregaon violence case and took cognisance of it was authorised to do so, PTI reported.
… The court posted the matter for next hearing on July 15.
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08/07/2021
Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim
The Bombay High Court on Monday said that the Court’s records were consistent with lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj’s RTI replies, according to which Additional Sessions Judge (Pune) Kishore Vadane was not appointed as a Special Judge under the NIA Act in 2018/2019.
“Record is the same as you had annexed under RTI,” Justice SS Shinde heading the division bench said at the beginning of the hearing.
The court also asked the State if it had anything additional to show that the judge was assigned the case back then.
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06/07/2021
The Free Press Journal / by Staff Reporter
Trade unionist, human rights lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj through her advocate Yug Chaudhry claimed that the special judge, who extended the time to file chargesheet into the Bhima Koregaon violence case, and also took cognisance of the chargesheet, was not a special judge under the National Investigation Agency Act.
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06/07/2021
Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim
The Bombay High Court said it would verify with the Registry if Additional Sessions Judge Kishor Vadane was a Special Judge under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act in 2018/2019 and if he was authorised to take cognisance of the Pune police’s charge sheet against the accused in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar – Parishad Case.
A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar heard Bharadwaj’s plea seeking bail in default Under Sections 439, 482 and section 167(2)(a)(i) of the Criminal Procedure Code read with section 43 D(2)of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. She has challenged two orders of Judge KD Vadane.
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06/07/2021
The Hindu / by Sonam Saigal
Eight accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case moved the Bombay High Court on Tuesday seeking bail on the ground that the special judge at Pune who rejected their default bail was not authorised to do so. Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira filed the petition through advocate R. Sathyanarayanan.
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The Quint / by Mekhala Saran
For the 15 Bhima Koregaon accused, there’s no trial in sight, and no interim relief in reach either.
Father Stan Swamy’s death, as an incarcerated undertrial in the Bhima Koregaon case, has sparked outrage and triggered international condemnation.
Swamy was 84 years old, suffered from Parkinson’s disease, and had told the Bombay High Court, weeks before his death, that all he wanted was to go home.
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