The Maharashtra government on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that Bhima Koregaon accused Rona Wilson’s plea to quash his chargesheet is not maintainable.
Mr. Wilson is lodged at Taloja Central Jail and relies upon a report by a digital forensic analyst Arsenal Consultancy in the United States of America that has debunked all the electronic evidence gathered by the NIA and said the attacker planted malware in Mr Wilson’s computer and that it was compromised.
On February 10, 2021, he moved the High Court mentioning the report by Arsenal Consulting which was consulted by the American Bar Association (ABA) to examine the clone copy of the hard disc of Mr Wilson’s computer. The report stated that a hacker controlled his computer for a period of 22 months through malware to plant documents which led to an investigation that supposedly unravelled a conspiracy to eliminate Prime Mnister Narendra Modi.
Shrinivas Ghadge, DCP Crime, Pune City filed an affidavit in the matter and raised preliminary objections regarding maintainability. The affidavit says, “Arsenal report does not form a part of the chargesheet which was filed by Pune police and NIA. It is a settled position of law that documents which are not relied upon in the chargesheet cannot be relied upon by the petitioner. There is no question of looking into the report of Arsenal Consulting and the petition deserves to be rejected.”
State denies the contention of Mr Gadling that prosecuting agency has purposefully delayed supplying cloned copies to the accused and co-accused.
The affidavit added, “The petitioner himself is not sure of the person who has allegedly planted the document and as such the entire petition is vague and therefore, cannot be considered by the court. The entire petition is based on if’s and but’s and he himself is not sure as to who has allegedly attacked his computer. The alleged attack has taken place even before the prosecuting agencies had come into picture. Therefore, his claim that he is innocent is incorrect.”
Published - July 13, 2021 05:32 pm IST
