Elgar-Maoist links case: HC to hear activists' plea on April 29

The activists had moved the Bombay High Court alleging tampering of evidence and seeking that the charges against them in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case be quashed.

Mumbai:The Bombay High Court on Thursday said it will hear the petitions filed by activists Rona Wilson and Shoma Sen in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case on April 29.

A bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale said it will hear both pleas together since they seek similar reliefs and cited a report of the US-based forensics firm Arsenal Consulting.

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The bench also asked Sen's counsel's senior advocates, Indira Jaising and Anand Grover to serve a copy of her plea to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the prosecuting agency in the case.

On April 14, Sen had filed a plea in the court citing the report of Arsenal Consulting, which claimed that an attacker had used malware to infiltrate a laptop belonging to Wilson before his arrest, and inserted 10 incriminating letters on his computer.

Wilson, who is Sen's co-accused in the case, had himself approached the High Court in February this year through senior advocate Mihir Desai, citing the Arsenal report.

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The activists, in their pleas, have said that the entire case against them was built on electronic evidence that the NIA claimed to have recovered from Wilson's computer.

In light of the Arsenal report, such evidence must not hold value in the eyes of law, they have said.

PTI

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