Electronic record dubious: Elgar Parishad case accused seeking discharge

MUMBAI: Citing the report by Arsenal Consulting, a US-based digital forensics firm, and alleging planting of electronic evidence, 65-year-old Vernon Gonsalves, accused in the Elgar Parishad case, moved the special NIA court seeking discharge on Wednesday. The discharge plea said Arsenal Consulting has made a report concluding that the computer of co-accused, lawyer and activist Surendra Gadling was compromised and malware was similarly used to plant through remote access all the allegedly incriminating documents shown to be recovered from his electronic device. The plea referred to one such document which the prosecution cited to show that Gonsalves was involved in recruitment activities on a city campus for banned organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist), and said that the electronic record does not indicate its author, its sender, which computer it was produced on, or even its date. The discharge plea further said that the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report on electronic devices seized from accused activist Rona Wilson also show tampering by accessing the electronic devices after seizure under panchnama. It said it was pertinent to note that despite specific questions asked in questionnaires sent to FSL regarding tampering and malware in the devices examined, the FSL has not certified that there was no tampering or no malware on the electronic devices that they have examined. The discharge plea said this, too, points to the dubiousness of these electronic records.It said that on July 23, 2021, the probe officer had written to the Kalina FSL director, enclosing copies of Forensic Analysis Reports I and II of Arsenal Consulting, and affidavit (along with DVD) of an IIT-Bombay professor, requesting comments for further action regarding reports and affidavit which showed that Wilson's computer had been compromised for 22 months from 13 June 2016."These reports and other, and further forensic analysis all indicate that the allegedly incriminating records shown against the accused have actually been inserted into the computers or electronic devices seized from the concerned accused by a series of criminal acts punishable under relevant provisions of the IT Act and of the IPC... It entitles the accused, including the applicant, to be discharged from the present case," the discharge plea said.The court directed the prosecution to submit its reply next week. The plea also said Gonsalves was vindictively arrested and implicated after co-accused, activist Arun Ferreira, and he jointly published articles critical of the probe.