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Hard disk seized from Elgar case accused to be sent to FBI, MHA okays move
A senior police official involved in the probe, who requested anonymity, has confirmed the development
Investigating the Elgar Parishad case, the Pune police have decided to seek help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States to retrieve data from a broken hard disk seized from the house of Telugu poet and accused in the case Varavara Rao.
A senior police official involved in the probe, who requested anonymity, has confirmed the development.
Rao was arrested by the Pune police on August 28 last year. Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira are other activists arrested in connection with the December 31, 2017, Elgar Parishad case.
The senior officer mentioned above said that the hard disk recovered from Rao’s computer at his Hyderabad based home, days before his arrest, was earlier sent to four forensic laboratories which failed to recover any data.
It was first sent to a Pune-based laboratory, where experts could not retrieve the data, the official said. The hard disk was later sent to the Mumbai-based Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratories, but experts there too could not help with data.
Similar efforts were made with the forensic labs in Gujarat and Hyderabad, but no data could be recovered, the officer maintained.
“Since labs of the FBI are much advanced, the decision to send the hard disk there has been taken and necessary approval has been given by the Union Home Ministry,” the official said.
The prosecution recently submitted a draft chargesheet against 19 accused, including nine activists, who have already been arrested in connection with the case.
The nine Left-leaning activists arrested by the Pune Police in the case are - Varavara Rao, Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Sudha Bharadwaj.
Conspiracy to “assassinate” Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “overthrow” the government, besides “waging war” against the Government of India, are among the charges brought against all the 19 accused by the prosecution in the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon Bhima case.
(With agency inputs)
