The report of globally acclaimed Massachusetts-based digital forensic agency Arsenal Consulting has revealed that the evidence used to arrest the frail and ailing Jesuit priest Fr Stan Swamy after labeling him a traitor was indeed concocted. The false charges, the incarceration and the ill-treatment meted out to Fr Swamy, a Parkinson’s patient, ultimately leading to his death, were nothing but state-sponsored murder.
In a statement, Mr Ignatius Gonsalves, President, Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA), stated, “It has been revealed that the digital proof was planted on his computer’s hard drive and the electronic devices of Rona Wilson and Surendra Gadling, the co-accused with Fr Swamy. The same hackers who targeted the priest were the ones who launched a cyberattack against Wilson and Gadling. The nefarious connection between the hackers and the state was pointed out by cybersecurity company SentinelOne earlier.”
In June this year, WIRED magazine carried a report saying the above-mentioned firm had proof to link Pune police to the hackers. The report also contained evidence of hackers trying to obliterate all traces of their activities on June 11, 2019, on the eve of Fr Swamy’s arrest after being implicated in the Bhima Koregaon case.
The digital forensic report says that hackers used Remote Access Trojan (RAT) to snoop on the 84-year-old crusader’s system, access 24,000 files and plant more than 50 fake documents, painting him as anti-national. This shows the extent to which a conspiracy was hatched by the powers-that-be to put the activist-priest behind bars.
The state feared this infirm octogenarian because he championed the cause of the marginalized Adivasis and used constitutional means to fight for them.
“We salute the path-breaking analysis conducted by Arsenal Consulting, which has vindicated Fr Swamy, who was maligned and tortured by the state, and has jumped onto the totalitarian bandwagon. The skeletons that are stumbling out of the closet should embolden all those who stand for justice and democracy to oppose state-sponsored fascism tooth and nail,” the president said in the statement.
“We, as Christian journalists, who are called to be prophetic voices in defending the truth and democracy, cannot remain mute spectators to this blot on justice. We strongly condemn the false allegations foisted on a pious apostle of social justice and his slow martyrdom, confined to a hospital bed and denied even a straw to sip water. We demand that the NIA, which hoisted false allegations against a saintly priest, to apologise and those involved in framing him be brought to book. We also demand that Fr Stan Swamy be declared innocent by the court that initiated trial against him,” Mr Ignatius Gonsalves added in the statement.