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Category: Persecution

NIA Court rejecting bail to Anand Teltumbde [read judgment]

NIA Court rejecting bail to Anand Teltumbde [read judgment]

Bail cannot be granted only because accused is innocent until proven guilty: NIA Court while rejecting bail to Anand Teltumbde [Read judgment]

16/07/2021

Bar &Bench / by Neha Joshi

The Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court at Mumbai observed that there was sufficient material to reach to prima facie conclusion that the accusations against Bhima Koregaon accused Anand Teltumbde are prima facie true.
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Read judgment


Special NIA Court Rejects Prof Anand Teltumbde’s Bail Application

12/07/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

A Special NIA Court, on Monday, rejected the bail application of former IIT professor and academic Anand Teltumbde, booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case.
Special Judge DE Kothalikar had reserved the application for orders on July 6, 2021. Teltumbde, 70, was arrested by the NIA on April 14, last year, after he surrendered before the agency following Supreme Court orders and applied for bail on merits in the special court on January 13, 2021.
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Also read: Castist forces cannot digest success of a Dalit scholar: Anand Teltumbde in his bail plea (Bar & Bench, Jan 2021)

State and NIA oppose default bail plea by Sudha Bharadwaj and 8 other accused in the case

State and NIA oppose default bail plea by Sudha Bharadwaj and 8 other accused in the case

UAPA Offences Will Go Before Special Court Only When NIA Investigates: Maharashtra Govt To Bombay High Court In Sudha Bharadwaj’s Plea For Default Bail

15/07/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

Opposing the default bail plea of Bhima Koregaon- Elgar Parishad accused Sudha Bharadwaj, on Thursday, the Maharashtra Government said that orders passed by the Pune Judge Kishore Vadane were not without jurisdiction even though he was a sessions judge and not a Special Judge under the NIA Act.
During the last hearing Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar had said that the Court’s records were consistent with RTI replies received by Bharadwaj judge KD Vadane’s court was not notified as a special court under the NIA Act.
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Update by Live Law (July 15)


#BombayHighCourt will hear lawyer-activist, #SudhaBharadwaj’s plea seeking default bail on the grounds that the Pune judge was not authorised to take cognisance of the chargesheet against her and others in 2019 +++
A bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar will also hear a petition by other accused in the Bhima Koregaon case seeking similar reliefs +++
Hearing begins. Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni for the State. Adv Yug Chaudhry for Sudha Bharadwaj +++

…
Read thread @LiveLawIndia



Also read: Cognizance Of Bhima Koregaon Chargesheet Vitiated As Pune Judge Wasn’t Special Judge Under NIA Act? Bombay High Court To Examine (Live Law, July 8, 2021)

BK16: Why Is The Judiciary Still Sleeping? / Demise of Father Stan Swamy Marks Death of India’s Conscience

BK16: Why Is The Judiciary Still Sleeping? / Demise of Father Stan Swamy Marks Death of India’s Conscience

BK16: Why Is The Judiciary Still Sleeping?

15/07/2021

Countercurrents / by Sangeeta Kamat

The Bhima Koregaon15 spending a single additional night in jail is a travesty of justice.
The third report by Arsenal on evidence planting became public on July 6, with even more damning evidence corroborating the first two reports in February and April that confirmed extensive evidence planting on Rona Wilson’s hard drive, the first of the arrestees in the BK16 case. The third report meticulously documents transcripts of the malware and external activity on co-defendant Surendra Gadling’s hard drive from 2016 onward by the same attacker! Should not the Indian judiciary take account of the Arsenal reports to declare a fresh line of investigation into the so-called Bhima Koregaon case and release the 15 immediately?
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Demise of Father Stan Swamy Marks Death of India’s Conscience

15/07/2021

The Leaflet / by Aninda Dey

There was hardly a whimper in response to the sudden arrest of Father Stan Swamy on unproven charges of links to Maoists and sparking violence at Bhima Koregaon. His months-long incarceration under the UAPA, inhuman treatment, and tragic death is a dangerous trend that we Indians cannot ignore, for anybody could be next, writes Aninda Dey.
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Also read:
►Evidence found on a second Indian activist’s computer was planted, report says (Washington Post, July 6, 2021)
► Surendra Gadling’s Computer Was Attacked, Incriminating Documents Planted: Arsenal Consulting (The Wire, July 6, 2021)

Bombay HC directs NIA, prison authorities to examine Stan Swamy’s medical reports

Bombay HC directs NIA, prison authorities to examine Stan Swamy’s medical reports


Bangalore, July 14

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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Plea against transfer of Bhima Koregaon probe from State Police an obstacle: NIA to Bombay HC

Plea against transfer of Bhima Koregaon probe from State Police an obstacle: NIA to Bombay HC

Plea against transfer of Bhima Koregaon probe from State Plice an obstacle: NIA to Bombay HC

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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NIA tells HC that Bhima-Koregaon case given to it because of ‘gravity of offence’

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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Also read: Petition filed in Bombay High Court challenging transfer of case investigation to NIA (The Leaflet, June 2020)

Arsenal Report Can’t Be Relied Upon, Pune Police Opposes Rona Wilson’s Plea

Arsenal Report Can’t Be Relied Upon, Pune Police Opposes Rona Wilson’s Plea

Arsenal Report Can’t Be Relied Upon, Pune Police Opposes Rona Wilson’s Plea Alleging Planting Of Materials

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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Pune Police opposes Rona Wilson’s plea alleging ‘planted’ evidence, calls it ‘premature’

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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Also read: Surendra Gadling’s Computer Was Attacked, Incriminating Documents Planted: Arsenal Consulting (The Wire, July 7)

Govt Can Find Out Who Planted Documents, Says Cyber Expert

Govt Can Find Out Who Planted Documents, Says Cyber Expert

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)

Magisterial inquiry to be conducted into death of Father Stan Swamy

Magisterial inquiry to be conducted into death of Father Stan Swamy

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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Stan Swamy death: Many other Bhima Koregaon accused need medical treatment too, say relatives

Stan Swamy death: Many other Bhima Koregaon accused need medical treatment too, say relatives


Prison diaries. Drawing by Arun Ferreira

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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Also read: The Institutional Murder of Fr. Stan Swamy – A statement by the family members and friends of the BK-16 (July 6, 2021)

Can ‘Planted Malware’ Report Help the Accused in Court?

Can ‘Planted Malware’ Report Help the Accused in Court?

Can ‘Planted Malware’ Report Help the Accused in Court?

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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Explainer: Arsenal Report on Surendra Gadling

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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Surendra Gadling’s Computer Was Attacked, Incriminating Documents Planted: Arsenal Consulting

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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Evidence found on a second Indian activist’s computer was planted, report says

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
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