Bhima Koregaon Case: NIA Approaches Special Court To Handover Seized Handsets Of 7 Accused To Pegasus Committee

Special Judge DE Kothalikar sought for the accused to file their responses to the application and posted the matter for hearing today.

The seven accused are Rona Wilson, Anand Teltubde, Vernon Gonsalves, P. Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Hany Babu and Shoma Sen.

In October 2021, the Supreme Court ordered the constitution of an independent expert committee to look into the allegations of widespread and targeted surveillance of politicians, journalists, activists etc. using the Pegasus spyware.

The functioning of the committee is overseen by retired Supreme Court judge Justice RV Raveendran assisted by two others. The committee invited people to write to them if they suspected their devices were infected.

The accused had then written to the Technical Committee about their suspicion of snooping using the Pegasus spyware after a US-based forensic consulting firm confirmed that Rona Wilson's iPhone was infected with the Pegasus spyware before his arrest in the case on June 8, 2018.

All 26 devices were seized at the time of their arrest, the accused said.

Paying heed to their requests, the Technical Committee wrote to the NIA to access, copy from the devices and inspect them.

Fifteen civil rights activists and academics, in India, are incarcerated, facing charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) based on letters primarily retrieved from Rona Wilson and co-accused Surendra Gadling's computer, to claim a conspiracy to kill the Prime Minister and overthrow the government. The case against Father Stan Swamy was abated after he passed away, last year. 

The Pune police initially investigating the caste-based violence at the Bhima Koregaon war memorial on January 1, 2018 widened the scope of their investigation to allege Maoist links to the violence. The NIA later took over the investigation into the case.

The accused have always maintained that their electronic devices were hacked and evidence planted against them.

Arsenal Consulting, a digital forensics consulting company in the USA has submitted several reports (at least 3) concluding that the electronic evidence being cited against the accused was planted.

Their first report stated that Wilson's computer was infected with a malware, called NetWire (available for $10 online), which was planted through an email on June 13, 2016, two years before his arrest on Jun 6, 2018. A petition before the Bombay HC is pending in this regard.

According to the third report dated June 18, 2021, co-accused Surendra Gadling's computer was compromised for over 20 months by the same cyber attacker named in the forensic firms first two reports.