Mumbai: Professor Shoma Sen, an accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, has approached the Bombay High Court challenging the charges invoked against her under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Sen who was arrested in June 2018 has claimed that the electronic evidence that the prosecution was relying on against her and dozens of other human rights activists was planted. Sen, like Rona Wilson another accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, has relied on a US based digital forensic report that has concluded that the digital evidence was planted.
In February this year, Rona Wilson had petitioned a bench headed by Justice Sambhaji Shinde claiming that the evidence against him in his laptop was planted at least two years before his arrest.
Wilson had accordingly sought constitution of an SIT to be led by a retired HC or Supreme Court judge to probe into the case. On similar lines, Sen has petitioned the HC through her counsel Rahul Aarote challenging her prosecution under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
It would not be out of place to mention, the American Bar Association (ABA) had handed over the clone copy of Wilson's hard disk to a Chelsea-based Arsenal Consulting, a digital forensic company.
Accordingly, Arsenal was asked to examine 10 of the 52 identified items, which the prosecution has relied upon, in its accusation (against all the accused) of plotting to kill PM Modi.
Arsenal in its report had found existence of malware which made material changes in the content of the system without Wilson even getting a hint of it. The report, as per Wilson, showed scientific details that an attacker deployed a malware named NetWire, with which he initially kept an eye on him, "and later on, remotely through the malware, delivered various files, including the incriminating correspondence, which he never opened.
Sen's plea would come up for hearing in the due course.
