NIA agrees to hand over clone copy of electronic evidence

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) recently informed the Bombay High Court that it would hand over to the accused activists the clone copies of allegedly incriminating electronic evidence that it relied upon in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case. The Central agency, however, raised an objection to the interim relief of staying the trial in the special court, as sought by activists Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha.

The NIA filed its affidavit before a bench led by Justice Nitin Jamdar, hearing petitions filed by Bharadwaj and Navlakha. In its affidavit, the NIA also denied the contention of the accused that the cloned copies were tampered and that the same would be examined by the experts of city’s Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL). It also denied that five of its reports are yet to be received.

Advocate Yug Chaudhary for the activists had argued that unless the clone copies are handed over, the trial court shouldn't frame charges against his clients and other accused in the case. He had argued that denying the copies would violate their fundamental right to life and liberty and a fair trial. He had accordingly sought to stay the trial before the special court.

Opposing the plea, the NIA in its affidavit said, “The appeal praying for clone copies of electronic evidence under Section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is going to be supplied to the accused persons; however, the interim prayer for stay of the trial proceedings is strongly objected.”

NIA further said that it has already supplied the hard copies/printed certified copies of all the relied upon documents and that allegations of vulnerability to tampering and manipulation are “fanciful submissions”.