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Category: Persecution

Bhima Koregaon case: planted evidence?

Bhima Koregaon case: planted evidence?

Frontline [print edition March 12] / by Anupama Katakam

Investigations by Arsenal Consulting, a global digital forensics consulting company, have revealed that evidence had been planted in the activist Rona Wilson’s computer, raising larger issues of unethical surveillance and motivated targeting of individuals.
Rona Wilson, the New Delhi-based activist who was arrested in June 2018 for his alleged connections with banned extreme Left organisations, has steadfastly maintained that the evidence against him is fabricated and the charges are false.
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Telugu, Wheelchair & Blanket: How Varavara Rao slipped into dementia during his time in prison

Telugu, Wheelchair & Blanket: How Varavara Rao slipped into dementia during his time in prison

The Quint / by Nikhila Henry

The octogenarian slipped into dementia during his time in prison, thereafter believing that his wife was dead.
Varavara Rao was incoherent on the phone. The president of Viplava Rachayitala Sagham (Revolutionary Writers’ Forum) spoke in Hindi instead of Telugu, his mother tongue, in which he has penned many poems.
“Her body was taken to the mortuary. Many people visited,” Rao said.
P Hemalatha, his wife, patiently listened to him during the five-minute-long phone call in June 2020 from Taloja Central Prison, Maharashtra, even as she was unsure of what he meant.
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Video: VV Rao – Poet, Activist, Political Prisoner

22/02/2021


en | 5:54 | 2021

By Karwan e Mohabbat

Varavara Rao is no stranger to being imprisoned, but the 82-year-old is also the conscience of our society-an intellectual we need to protect from the excesses of a state determined to destroy dissent.
Watch video

Varavara Rao granted interim bail in Surajgar arson case [read order]

Varavara Rao granted interim bail in Surajgar arson case [read order]

Sabrangindia / by Sabrangindia

Rao’s lawyers cited Bombay High Court’s judgement granting bail on medical grounds while securing bail in this case.
The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court has granted temporary bail to 82-year-old Telugu poet Varavara Rao for 4 weeks, following the Principal bench order granting him bail on medical grounds.
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+++ Bombay HC grants bail on medical grounds to Varavara Rao for six month [read judgement] +++

+++ Bombay HC grants bail on medical grounds to Varavara Rao for six month [read judgement] +++


By Live Law (Feb 24):
Accused Varavara Rao approaches the Bombay High Court seeking a month to comply with his bail condition of submitting two solvent sureties to the Special NIA Court +++

By Bar & Bench (Feb 24):
Bombay High Court will hear Bhima Koregaon accused Varavara Rao’s application tomorrow seeking directions for making change in the formality of submitting surety to the Special NIA Court for releasing Rao on bail +++

Bombay HC Grants Varavara Rao Six Months’ Bail on Medical Grounds

22/02/2021

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

Within this period, the poet must remain within the jurisdiction of the special NIA court that is hearing the charges him against in the Elgar Parishad case.
New Delhi: The Bombay high court on Monday granted poet and rights activist Varavara Rao six months’ bail on medical grounds. Within this period, however, the poet must remain within the jurisdiction of the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court that is hearing the charges against him in the Elgar Parishad case, the court said.
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Bombay High Court Grants Varavara Rao Bail For 6 Months On Medical Grounds

22/02/2021

Live Law / by Sharmeen Hakim

The Bombay High Court on Monday granted bail on medical grounds to 81-year-old ailing Telugu Poet Dr Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.
The High Court observed that it was a “genuine and fit” case for granting relief in view of the advanced age of the petitioner and inadequate facilities at Taloja jail hospital. The bench added that if it denies relief to Rao, it will be abdicating its constitutional duties as a protector of human rights and right to health covered under Article 21 of the Constitution.
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Bombay High Court grants bail to Bhima Koregaon accused Dr. Varavara Rao for six month [read judgement]

22/02/2021

Bar & Bench / by Neha Joshi

“We feel that with the condition of the under trial, it would be inappropriate to send him back (to jail),” the Bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale ruled.
The Bombay High Court on Monday granted bail to 82-year-old Bhima Koregaon accused Dr. Varavara Rao on medical grounds.
The Court has granted the octogenarian bail for a period of six months.
The order was passed by a Bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale in two separate pleas – one by Rao praying for bail and the other by his wife Pendyala Hemlatha seeking the Court’s intervention in view of the alleged violation of his fundamental right to health.
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Varavara Rao granted six-month bail on medical grounds [read judgement]

22/02/2021

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

The Bombay High Court Monday granted six months medical bail to 82-year-old Dr. PV Varavara Rao, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case. Dr. Rao is facing charges under the unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act’ (UAPA).
A division bench of Justice SS Shinde and Manish Pitale said it would have abdicated its duty in protecting his fundamental rights if it had denied bail to the ailing Telugu poet.
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Bombay High Court verdict on February 22 in bail plea by accused Varavara Rao

21/02/2021

Bar and Bench / by Neha Joshi

Rao is presently lodged in Nanavati Hospital after the State informed the Court their willingness to shift Rao to the private hospital as a special case. The verdict will be pronounced at 11 am tomorrow.
Besides Rao’s plea for bail, the Court will also pronounce its verdict on a plea filed by his wife Pendyala Hemlatha seeking the Court’s intervention in view of alleged violation of his “fundamental right to health”.
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Timeline of Bhima-Koregaon Cases and Status in Court (Dec 2018 – Feb 2021)

Timeline of Bhima-Koregaon Cases and Status in Court (Dec 2018 – Feb 2021)

By India Civil Watch

December 28, 2017: Desecration of shrine at Vudhu Budhruk village near Bhima-Koregaon which commemorates Govind Gaikwad, a Dalit (Mahar) icon. FIR filed against the desecrators (groups linked to the RSS and Hindutva movement. which included a named individual, Milind Eknote a well-known Hindutva leader).
December 29, 2017: Call for a bandh against Dalits by same groups and individuals
December 31, 2017: Elgaar Parishad held in Pune
January 1, 2018: Tens of thousands of Dalits visit Bhima-Koregaon to mark 200th anniversary of memorial to Mahar soldiers. Some clashes between Hindutva groups and some Dalits occur in which 1 person was killed. Subsequently, large protests by Dalits in Mumbai. Police crackdown and arrests of many Dalits. No arrest of any named Hindutva individual.
…
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From FIR to Malware Claims: A Timeline of the Bhima Koregaon Case

From FIR to Malware Claims: A Timeline of the Bhima Koregaon Case

The Quint / by Vakasha Sachdev

When exactly did the Bhima Koregaon case, as it has come to be known, begin?
Was it on the day the first set of activists were arrested, back in June 2018? Was it the day when malware was allegedly planted on the computers of at least one of the accused, two years before that? Or do we have to go all the way back to the Battle of Bhima Koregaon itself to understand what’s really going on with this case?
Here’s a complete timeline of this controversial case: from its origins in a dodgy FIR, to the moment the Supreme Court could have nipped all this in the bud; and from the filing of 3 charge sheets, to the 16 arrests made under its vague and dubious mandate.
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Allegations of planted evidence raise questions about hacking ecosystem in India / Designs of India’s Surveillance State

Allegations of planted evidence raise questions about hacking ecosystem in India / Designs of India’s Surveillance State

Allegations of planted evidence raise questions about hacking ecosystem in India

19/02/2021

Cyber Scoop / by Shannon Vavra

Recent allegations that planted evidence may have been used to frame an activist in a terrorism case are raising new questions about the surveillance and hacking ecosystem in India.
The human rights activist in question, Rona Wilson, is one of several people accused of plotting to overthrow the Indian government in connection with a violent demonstration in Bhima Koregaon, India in 2017…
While it may be unclear who exactly is responsible for the reportedly manipulated evidence against Wilson at this time, the possible links between pro-India hacking operations and the global commercial sector of surveillance software have begun to emerge in recent research.
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Unprecedented Tampering In Bhima Koregaon Case: Forensic Firm Chief

19/02/2021

Outlook/ by Preetha Nair

Mark Spencer is the president of Arsenal Consulting, a forensic firm that recently released a report that concluded that incriminating evidence was planted on the computer of Bhima-Koregaon accused and activist Rona Wilson.
In an email interview with Outlook, Arsenal Consulting’s President Mark Spencer elaborates on the process involved in analyzing the data and larger issues with regard to the case. Spencer also contests the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) claim of no ‘planted evidence’.
Excerpts from the interview.
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Sinister Designs of India’s Surveillance State

19/02/2021

NewsClick / by Suhit K Sen

How the Bhima Koregaon case has progressed so far gives credence to the claim that malware was planted on activist Rona Wilson’s computer.
On 10 February, Rona Wilson, one of the first batch of activists arrested by the police in the Bhima Koregaon/Elgar Parishad case, filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking the dismissal of the case against him. In support, his lawyers provided a forensic report showing that evidence had been planted against him.
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Also read: Prison-rights activist Rona Wilson’s hard disk contained malware that allowed remote access (The Caravan, March 2020)

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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