By P A Chacko
Sahibganj, Jan 18, 2023: The damning revelation by the Massachusetts-based digital forensic firm, Arsenal Consulting, that Father Stan Swamy’s computer was compromised and targeted by hackers for planting 44 incriminating documents, exposes the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and its masters.
Because, the agency took these falsely cooked up and agenda-based incriminating documents as gospel truth for implicating the 84-year-old Catholic priest and for pushing him to his deathbed as a cripple.
The brain behind this malicious malware operation is not a scatterbrain. The well-planned activity, spanning over four and a half years, could not have been executed without the blessings and connivance of the Executive leg of the ruling dispensation.
This was evident because the NIA functionaries had made sure that much of the charge sheet against Father Stan Swamy would be based on the evidence of the incriminating documents on his computer. But, unfortunately for this self-proclaimed “thoroughly professional Investigative agency matching the best international standards” (description given by Dipankar Gupta, Director General, IPS, Vision and Mission, nia.go.in), the ‘Operation Compromise’ was more than a flop show.
Its act, leading to the custodial murder of an innocent Catholic priest, has been nothing short of a criminal act. It was murder most foul because he was made to rot in jail without timely medical care. Further, though bail is a the rule and jail an exception, even the judiciary looked the other way when Swamy’s advocates applied for bail contending that he was almost a cripple, unable to hold even a cup to the lips due to Parkinson’s disease.
It is quite another matter if the judge who denied him bail repented on hearing Swamy’s sad end as a detenue. Even as he shed crocodile tears, the ruling dispensation took exception to his sentiments and wanted him to withdraw his statement. That again exposes the evil intent of the government to annihilate all dissent and eliminate people like Swamy who had said, ‘I am not a silent spectator’ in the face of injustice and untruth.
Given the soft-spoken character of late Father Stan Swamy, his soul will not be baying for the blood of the guilty NIA criminal gang and its patrons. In a way, they have inadvertently done an act of promoting Stan Swamy’s cause as a martyr for a just cause.
But, one thing is evident. The blood-stained hands of NIA and its master jacks cannot be washed clean in any Triveni Sangam. This counter terrorist agency should be appropriately called a terrorist outfit promoting acts of sabotage against the nation’s innocent citizens through malware experts and terror provoking means.
The American Forensic Agency, Arsenal Consulting, which exposed the criminal act of the malware operation, is a reputed international firm. In a recent interview to NDTV, its President Mark Spencer categorically stated that the hard disk material with incriminating documents found in Father Stan’s computer was planted in a secret folder by an unknown hacker over a period of four and half years. He also stated that there was no evidence that Father Stan had anything to do with them nor did he ever open or operate any such files.
Given the reputation of the professional expertise of Arsenal Consulting, NIA or the Government will not be in a position to deny the evidence offered by it.
One of the documents, among other things, was supposed to have contained the following communication of Father Stan to some Maoist leader: “On the ground level, there must be some action from your side to capture senior leaders of ruling BJP in the state and demand that the oppressive law must be done away with.” (Source: Document in NDTV’s possession).
Anybody with even an iota of common sense will conclude that such blatant and incriminating communication would not be stored by anyone on a computer. Perhaps NIA’s logic and scatter-brained reasoning went haywire under the command of its hidden master. Or, it sold its soul to the devil to fall for a pittance.
In addition to the 44 files planted on Father Stan’s computer, 40 were planted in researcher and the public relations secretary of the Committee for Release of Political prisoners Rona Wilson’s computer and 14 on human rights lawyer and Dalit activist Surendra Gadling’s in connection with the Bhima Koregaon terrorist case. So, the pattern of planting is clear.
A surprising thing pointed out by Arsenal Consulting was that a day before NIA’s raid on Father Stan, there was hectic activity by the hacker to clean up the malware. That meant the attacker had prior knowledge of police action. Thereby hangs a tale.
In an address to the legal fraternity, President Droupadi Murmu pointed out that so many people, even many innocent, were rotting in jail for years when the judicial process could have been quickened to close up their cases, or at least release them on bail.
Perhaps, she was also pointing a finger at the executive’s lack of will to facilitate a speedy process. The public prosecutor who opposes the bail is a government agent meant to sing his master’s tune, not the tune of his conscience. Was it only Murmu’s maternal feelings that gave vent to her thoughts or were her words not meant to touch a cord in the hearts of men and women of conscience in the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary?
Those close to Father Stan knew very well that his only ‘crime’ was that he had a heart for tribals. The way he supported Panchayat raj and village self-government under legal provisions was not according to what is in the rule book of the BJP government.
In the name of development, while the Centre was rolling out red carpet to big industries to come up in resource-rich Jharkhand, Father Stan’s concern was for the displaced, the migrant and those affected through land alienation.
The local tribals, who opposed the resource loot in the name of development, were branded by the government as Maoists and had them jailed. There again, the humanitarian hand of Fr. Stan was stretched out to help those innocent victims. Was it a crime to organise legal help to those poor people to obtain bail? Was it an anti-national act to conduct a survey of such tribal youths jailed in the many jails of Jharkhand?
Of course, in the eyes of a government, which is intent on thwarting and destroying the secular and socialistic fabric of the nation in order to sup with capitalists, such acts are criminal. That is where the government will release its watch dogs to smell terrorist blood and anti-national activity in social activists and human rights defenders and tear them to shreds or silence them.
Those responsible for the crime of engaging the malware operators for planting incriminating documents on Swamy’s computer, leading to his horrendous death in jail, should be ferreted out and booked for trial. Their crime is nothing short of being murder accomplices. That is where the nation will intently watch if the Judiciary will have the backbone to stand up and call a spade a spade. Or, will it buckle under executive pressure to sweep truth and justice under the carpet?
If President Draupadi’s words will have any meaning, then the Judiciary should act honestly and with integrity to operate under constitutional norms and ideals. Because it is responsible to the nation, not to the Executive or any ‘Big Brother’!