Elgaar Parishad case: Phones of 7 accused to be submitted to SC panel on Pegasus, NIA officer to submit devices after court nod

Special Judge Dinesh E Kothalikar on Tuesday allowed the plea by the National Investigation Agency, seeking permission for the devices to be sent to the SC panel which had sought them after the accused wrote to it. The lawyers for the seven accused gave their no objection to the devices being sent.

The court said that the articles mentioned in the NIA plea — 25 mobile instruments seized from the accused — which are in its custody be returned to the investigation officer. It directed the registrar of the court to open the seal on the articles in presence of the accused and their lawyers on Wednesday. The articles will then be resealed and handed over to the investigation officer to submit them to the SC panel. The three-member committee has sought for the devices to be submitted on February 10. After the committee makes digital copies of the devices, they will be returned to the court as they are part of the evidence against the accused for the trial.

Applications to the committee for submission of their devices were sent by Rona Wilson, Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Hany Babu, Shoma Sen, Anand Teltumbde and P Varavara Rao, stating that they suspect their devices were infected by Pegasus spyware. The committee had written to the NIA, seeking the devices, after the pleas of the seven said that they want to submit their devices but are not in a position to do so since they are with the court.

The mobile phones of the accused were seized at the time of their arrests by Pune City Police, which initially probed the case, and then the NIA, which took over the probe in 2020.

The Supreme Court-appointed committee had last month issued a public notice calling upon people who had ‘reasonable cause’ to suspect that their mobile instrument had been infected/compromised due to specific usage of Pegasus, a spyware developed by Israeli firm NSO Group, to come before the committee with reasons as to why they believe their devices may have been infected.

The accused, in their representation before the committee, separately stated the reasons behind their suspicion of their devices being infected with the spyware. Wilson has approached the Bombay High Court with a writ petition filed last year referring to a report by a US-based independent forensic firm Arsenal Consulting, which said that his computer was ‘infected with a malware’ planted two years before his arrest in 2018.

Cops in plainclothes visited my friend’s home, Bharadwaj tells court Lawyer and trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj, who was released on bail in December, informed the special court on Tuesday that men in plainclothes, claiming to be from CID, visited the residence of her friend in Andheri, where she was residing earlier.

Last month, Bharadwaj had sought a change in address and was permitted to reside in Thane.

“This week, some police personnel claiming to be from CID visited my earlier residence. They did not show any ID. I do not have a house in this city. I will have to stay with friends. These friends should not face harassment because they are giving shelter to me,” Bharadwaj informed the court.

NIA Special Public Prosecutor Sundeep Sadawarte said that the officials were not from NIA. Special Judge Kothalikar asked the agency to find out who had visited the home and give appropriate instructions to them, since Bharadwaj has been permitted to change her address by the court and has nothing to do with the earlier address anymore.

Bharadwaj told the court that she had complied with her bail conditions and had been marking her presence with the local police station as required.