February 12, 2021
A report by a US-based digital forensics firm reveals shocking evidence that malaware was used to plant a bunch of incriminating letters on the computer of Rona Wilson, one of the Bhima Koregaon accused. It is these letters that were made the basis for the Bhima Koregaon case, for which Wilson has been arrested and imprisoned under the draconian UAPA without bail or trial since 2018. The report also found that the same cyber-attacker targeted the computers of other accused persons in the Bhima Koregaon case. Similar letters, purportedly exchanged between a Maoist leader and the accused persons and “plotting to kill the Prime Minister”, were the basis for the arrests of advocate and labour organiser Sudha Bharadwaj and other accused in the same case. The firm had been requested by the lawyers of Rona Wilson to examine an electronic copy of his laptop.
This report provides irrefutable evidence for what has been obvious from the start: that there was a deliberate conspiracy to falsely implicate leading human rights lawyers, activists, and intellectuals critical of the Modi regime, as a pretext to imprison them indefinitely. It may be recalled that in 2018 itself, Justice Chandrachud’s dissenting judgement in the Supreme Court had held that the allegations against the accused in the Bhima Koregaon case were “taking liberties with the truth”, and that “Sufficient material has been placed before the Court bearing on the need to have an independent investigation”.
In 2019, WhatsApp had informed several Indians, including lawyers of the Bhima Koregaon accused, that an Israeli software Pegasus had been used to target their systems and instal malaware via WhatsApp. The Israeli surveillance firm ‘NSO Group’ that created Pegasus had confirmed that they only sold Pegasus software to government agencies.
The CPIML Central Committee demands that in the light of these findings, all cases against the Bhima Koregaon accused be immediately dropped. If the National Investigative Agency is unwilling to drop the patently false cases, it is imperative that courts order the dropping of the cases. Not only must the Bhima Koregaon accused be released without a moment’s delay; they must also be compensated by the state for the ordeal they have been forced to undergo.
Who conspired to plant false evidence on the computers of human rights advocates in India? In the light of the findings of the digital forensics investigation, the Supreme Court judgement rejecting the demand for an independent investigation in the Bhima Koregaon case must be revisited and the dissenting judgement by Justice Chandrachud upheld. We demand an independent investigation into the perpetrators of the cyber-attacks, and also into the role of the investigative agencies in conspiring to frame innocent Indian citizens.
- CPIML Central Committee
