On February 10, left-leaning American newspaper Washington Post published a report alleging that the Bhima Koregaon case accused were falsely implicated in the case by planting fake evidence on their computers. Following up on an earlier report by Caravan making the same claims, the Washington Post report quoted an alleged forensic study of the ‘electronic copy’ of a laptop belonging to one accused Rona Wilson by an American company to claim that incriminating letters were planted in the laptop by a hacker.
Quoting a report from Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm, the report claims that Wilson’s laptop was hacked using malicious emails. Arsenal claims to have recovered PDF files in a hidden folder in the laptop, which contained the letters that became part of the charge sheet against Wilson. According to police, the email letters show that Wilson was in contact with a top Maoist leader named Comrade Prakash, and he had sought guns and ammunition from the banned left-wing terror group and had also urged them to assassinate PM Modi. However, now the alleged forensic study by Arsenal Consulting claims that Rona didn’t write these letters, and these were planted by hackers during a course of 22 months between 2016 and 2018.
There were several anomalies in the ‘forensic report’ that we had reported on earlier. For example, the flimsy claims about different versions of Microsoft Word being used in different documents and using that as an excuse to claim that some PDF documents were ‘planted’, The report by Arsenal Consulting mentions several PDF, RTF (rich text), ORG (Lotus organiser) files, none of them related to emails, which the Maharashtra police had recovered from the laptop, that they claimed that they had based their investigation on an “electronic copy” of the laptop, which as we explained is a bizarre claim in itself and how certain forensic experts have already raised doubts on the authenticity of the data.
However, it is not just the elements that don’t add up in the forensic report itself. There are organisations that seem to be involved in the propagation of this ‘forensic report’ that point towards the disturbing face that this report was made and distributed at the behest of certain foreign powers that have in the recent times, been seen fomenting trouble in India.
At the very onset, it is important to mention that Arsenal Consulting, which is based in the USA, was hired by the defence lawyers of Rona Wilson, the Urban Naxal. This was mentioned specifically by Arsenal Consulting in a report submitted to Mumbai special court.
Now, this report by a company that is on Rona Wilson’s retainer was shared by several Indian media houses. Other than Indian left-leaning media houses, one particular thread on this report gives us a peak into just how coordinated this campaign could have been.
A senior researcher at “Citizen Lab”, John Scott-Railton, also plugged the report in great detail.
NEW:🇮🇳Indian government claimed activists were plotting to overthrow #Modi… but a forensic report concludes key evidence was planted.
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) February 10, 2021
I reviewed the @ArsenalArmed report: it is serious & credible.
By: @NihaMasih & @jslaternyc @washingtonpost https://t.co/W3E81cR31t pic.twitter.com/TGCrsZC2m4
Citizens Lab is an interesting organisation to look into, to understand the nexus that could be working together to peddle a dubious narrative to save the Urban Naxals, arrested in 2018 under extremely serious charges like waging a war against the nation.
According to the website of Citizens Lab, “The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security”.
First and foremost, it is important here to remember that the University of Toronto itself is a government funded entity. While Universities in Canada regularly go through a cash crunch and have repeatedly looked for non-governmental funding, a large chunk of the funding that is received by University of Toronto is from the Canadian government.
Now, the Citizens Lab, which is feverishly spreading this propaganda against India and is extending support to Urban Naxals like Rona Wilson, is a research lab based in Munk School, which, is based in the University of Toronto. Since Citizens Lab is based in the University of Toronto, it can under no circumstances distance itself from the government of Canada itself and it is no secret how the government of Canada has been fomenting trouble in India and backing Khalistani terrorists that undermine the sovereignty of India.
Apart from the Canadian government, a look at Citizens Lab’s non-government funding also gives a window into the deeply sinister nexus.
A short list is provided on the homepage of Citizens Lab.
While we are sure that there is far more to dig into, the four organisations that immediately catches one’s eye is:
- International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
- Open Society Foundations
- HIVOS
International Development Research Centre (IRDC)
IRDC is a part of Canada’s foreign affairs and development efforts, and they, according to their website, “fund and support high-quality research in developing countries, share knowledge with researchers and policymakers to inform local and global action, and mobilize alliances to drive global positive change”.
According to their website, IDRC is governed by a board of up to 14 governors, whose chairperson reports to Parliament through the Minister of International Development.
Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the government of Canada is heavily invested in IRDC and in turn, in Citizens Lab.
Interestingly, IRDC has invested over CA$ 152.6 million since 1974.
IDRC on its website also mentions their extensive work in the state of Punjab.
It is pertinent to note at this point that Canada has been supporting Khalistani terrorists who are armed, separatists terrorists from the state of Punjab. A Canadian MP Jagmeet Singh has been involved intricately in fanning the violence during the on-going ‘farmers’ protest and rally global support for the insurrection during the 26th January ‘tractor rally’.
Open Society Foundation
At OpIndia, we have extensively documented the work of NGOs that have received donations from Soros’s Open Society Foundation (OSF). These organizations are extensively involved in shaping the mainstream narrative and they often engage in ‘judicial activism’ that seeks to use the Courts in order to undermine Indian national interests. Prominent among them are the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) and the French NGO Sherpa
Some of the efforts HRLN has been involved in include the campaign against ISKCON’s Akshaya Patra, a campaign against Indian sedition laws, and it has been providing free legal aid to Rohingya Muslims in India. It has also been engaging in activism for the implementation of the RTE Act that works against Hindu-run institutions. Furthermore, it is also linked to a plethora of organizations across the country that seeks to undermine India’s territorial integrity.
Members of the Right to Food Campaign (RFC), an organization HRLN is linked to, were also involved in the protest against then CJI Ranjan Gogoi that sought to undermine the legitimacy of the Indian Judiciary.
The French NGO Sherpa that filed a complaint against the Rafale Deal in France is also partners with George Soros’s Open Society. The complaint was also used by malcontents in India to pursue their agenda against Narendra Modi during the run-up to the General Elections last year.
George Soros, through his network of NGOs, has connections with a cultivated class of intellectuals who work resolutely towards opposing the Modi government. There are some prominent names with extensive links to George Soros but it is extremely unlikely that these connections will surprise anyone. Some of the most prominent among them are Harsh Mander, Indira Jaising and Amartya Sen.
At Davos, George Soros, in his speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Soros committed $1 billion towards fighting nationalism and nationalists. George Soros claimed that the “biggest and most frightening setback” was in India and accused Narendra Modi of “creating a Hindu nationalist state.”
Recently, even the links of George Soros to the Greta Thunberg ‘toolkit’ had emerged, where the entire plan to foment trouble in India was documented. The document also rallied global support for the planned insurrection by Khalistanis in the national capital.
George Soros and Washington Post, the media outlet that carried the Rona Wilson report
George Soros has a tremendous influence on American media. The Media Research Center (MRC), an American media watchdog founded in 1987 to check the liberal bias in the media, discovered that over 30 major news organizations had links to George Soros. These organizations include the Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, the Associated Press, NBC and ABC. He has also financially supported the National Public Radio (NPR). In addition to all of this, George Soros has links to the Huffington Post too.
It is pertinent to note that it was the Washington Post that picked up the dubious forensic analysis to exonerate Rona Wilson.
HIVOS
In November 2019, there was much ado after a report by Huffington Post that raised doubts on the credibility of Electoral Bonds in India. The Huffington Post had made claims that 95% of the electoral bonds go to ruling party BJP and had thus, alluded to a scam. The report was summarily debunked not just by OpIndia but also government officials.
The Huffington Post got this figure from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Now, what is this entity? Who runs it? What authority does it have? As it so happens, ADR is an FCRA NGO that receives foreign funds from some of the most dubious globalist organizations to have ever existed.
As per the government website Darpan, ADR receives a huge amount of funds from the Ford Foundation, Google, HIVOS and the Omidyar network for the explicit purpose of electoral and political reform and ‘election watch’. Now, what is the HIVOS? This organization is intricately linked to George Soros’ Open Society Foundation and receives funds from various international governments.
HIVOS’ 2018 annual report says, “The key sources of grant income from governments included the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Global Fund, Swedish International Development Aid, the Millennium Challenge Account, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the US Department of State, the Delegation of the European Union in Indonesia, and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Costa Rica.” Its annual report further says that the key sources of income from non-profit organizations included the Ford Foundation.
It is pertinent to note that these very organisations were linked to the lies spread in India about the purchase of Rafale jets by the Modi government. These lies were also summarily debunked, not just by OpIndia or the government, but even by the Supreme Court of India.
Here, it is pertinent to note that HIVOS is intricately linked to the Ford Foundation as well. Ford Foundation is an equally dubious organisation that has employed funds time and again to destabilise democracies through their NGOs. Ford Foundation is also a donor to Citizen’s lab.
It is thus evident that the same nexus of organisations that include Ford Foundation, George Soros, HIVO, the Canadian Government and several others are behind many controversies that erupt in India, some ending in violence and claiming the lives of Indian citizens and others, attempting to tarnish not just the reputation of the government of India but also that of India itself.
Recently, in the farmers’ protest, India saw the active involvement of George Soros, the Canadian government that supports Khalistanis, including an MP from Canada Jagmeet Singh, elements from the USA like Meena Harris and others, and several NGOs and organisations that gets funds from the foreign entities mentioned above.
After supporting an insurrection in India and Khalistanis who have been creating chaos and anarchy in India, the same organisation now seem to have come together to extend support to Urban Naxals who are accused of waging a war against India and plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Modi.
