Elgar Parishad case: NIA denies US lab report on Wilson's laptop; says his plea not maintainable

MUMBAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has questioned the maintainability of a quashing petition filed by an Elgar Parishad case accused, Rona Wilson.
The agency has sought dismissal of the plea filed on the basis of a US-based forensic lab report that indicated planting of evidence on Wilson's laptop.
The agency’s officer in the April 29 reply to Wilson’s February petition said, “I stoutly deny the report of M/s Arsenal Consultancy and also the report of the American Bar Association.’’
The independent forensic report of a “malware’ attack on his computer, “cannot be looked into at this stage’’ said NIA’s reply.
Wilson alleges in his petition that he was “framed by somebody".
The NIA said, his entire petition, however, does not mention by who “if at all it has even happened’’.
Wilson, 42, a human rights activist, lodged in Taloja prison since his June 2018 arrest by Pune police, sought quashing of the chargesheet filed by NIA which took over the probe in January 2020.
He is “charged for his role and involvement in larger CPI (Maoist) conspiracy in light of clashes that occurred at Koregaon Bhima on January 1, 2018 after the Elgar Parishad programmed on December 31 at Shaniwarwada, Pune’’, said the NIA
The chargesheet invoked serious anti-terror offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against the accused apart from other offences under the Indian Penal Code including section 121 (waging war against government of India), 124a (sedition) 120b (criminal conspiracy) and 153A IPC (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony)evidence, he said, was subsequently relied by the National Investigation Agency to book him in the case. The last chargesheet against him was on October 10, 2020.
Wilson’s petition cited a February 8 digital forensics report from Arsenal Consulting which said his computer had been “compromised’’ for 22 months. He has also urged the court to form an SIT to probe the alleged planting of evidence. The report had analysed a cloned copy of digital record he received from the prosecution, on July 30, 2020.
Mark Stevens, president of Arsenal Consulting, in a 16-page report, had said Wilson’s was “one of the most serious cases involving evidence tampering’’ that the firm had encountered, “based on various metrics that include the vast time span between the delivery of the first and last incriminating documents”.
But the NIA said the claims in the petition “are disputed question of facts and cannot be entertain in the present writ petition.’’ It said since Wilson contends that the “attacker’’ had “used virtual proxy server (VPS) making it difficult to identify the IP address and …the attacker’’ and the US report is not part of the chargesheets it cannot be relied on by the accused at this stage.
Besides, since the alleged attack, according to Wilson, occurred even before the Pune FIR was registered it is for him to explain how, when the laptop was in his control, the CBI said and added that the accused “cannot blame other persons leave aside independent agencies’’ like itself.
The NIA said Wilson has the alternate remedy of filing for discharge to drop the case. Besides, it said “Wilson and the co-accused would be charged shortly’’ and he can raise his contention and prove the report by “leading evidence’’ during the trial and his plea is “premature’’ .
Since the special trial court has already taken cognizance of the chargesheets, the petition is nothing but an attempt to delay the trial.
The NIA also said the issue of prosecution sanction can be considered during trial.