Tag Archive for: Prison

Hackers planted false files implicating Indian Jesuit Father Swamy who died in prison

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NEW DELHI (CNS)—Catholic activists and priests want the Indian government to “take full responsibility” for the custodial death of Jesuit Father Stan Swamy after findings by U.S.-based digital forensic experts that false evidence was planted on the priest’s computer.

In a recent report, Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm, said the “digital evidence used to arrest senior human rights defender Father Swamy in the Bhima-Koregaon case was planted on his computer’s hard drive.”

The 84-year-old Jesuit, a rights activist based in eastern Jharkhand state, died in a hospital while imprisoned in Mumbai in July 2021 after being denied bail on medical grounds, despite suffering from multiple age-related ailments.

He was arrested Oct. 8, 2020, by India’s anti-terror National Investigation Agency and accused of being party to a conspiracy allegedly hatched by outlawed Maoist rebels to unleash mob violence at Bhima-Koregaon, in the western state of Maharashtra, Jan. 1, 2018.

Ucanews.com reported Arsenal said “the attacker responsible for compromising Father Swamy’s computer had extensive resources (including time), and it is obvious that the primary goals were surveillance and incriminating document delivery.”

Disclosing details of the findings, Jesuit Father Joseph Xavier said in a statement that the hackers “first attacked Father Swamy’s computer on Oct. 19, 2014, using a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) called Netwire.”

“The report (by Arsenal) shows examples of the hackers being able to read his passwords as he was typing them, as well as other documents and emails,” said Father Xavier, who is also a convener of the Father Stan Swamy Legacy Committee of the Jesuits.

The hacker also read as many as 24,000 files on Father Stan’s device and planted files between July 2017 and June 2019, Father Xavier said, quoting from the report.

“Over 50 files were created on Father Swamy’s hard drive, including incriminating documents that fabricated links between Father Stan and the Maoist insurgency. The final incriminating document was planted on Father Stan’s computer on June 5, 2019, a week…

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Security personnel caught undertrial prisoner trying to smuggle two mobile batteries inside prison in Bengaluru

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The security personnel of the Karnataka State Industrial Security Force (KSISF) caught a 25-year-old undertrial prisoner trying to smuggle two mobile batteries inside the prison.

The accused Syed Ruman was arrested in a kidnap and rape case by the Pulakeshinagar police two years ago and has been lodged at the Central Prison as an undertrial prisoner.

On Wednesday, Ruman was taken to the court for physical production. He was escorted by the personnel of the City Armed Reserve. He was brought back to the prison at around 6 p.m. 

While undergoing a security check at the main gate, the security personnel recovered two mobile batteries concealed by Ruman. He was handed over to the jurisdictional police along with the seized items for further investigation.

The Parappana Agrahara police have registered a case against him under sections of the Karnataka Prisons (Amendment) Act and are investigating the case. The police are now on the lookout for the phones that needed the batteries.

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Convict caught smuggling mobile phone into central prison

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Security checks at the central prison of Parappana Agrahara has been stepped up ever since videos of the accused in Bajrang Dal activist Harsha’s murder case talking over mobile phones and making video calls while in prison went viral. The Chief Superintendent of Prison stepped up security measures and even filed a case against the accused for using mobile phone during Eid to talk to family and friends.

On Tuesday, Karnataka State Industrial Security Force staff deployed at the prison caught a convict trying to get into the prison with a mobile phone and memory card concealed in his pant. The accused, Kamanna K., was being escorted by Ponnampet police to central prison when constable Praveen H.G. of KSISF recovered the mobile phone and memory chip during frisking. The accused, along with the seized items, has been handed over to Chief Superintendent of Prison P.R. Ramesh, who filed a case with the jurisdictional police.

Earlier on Sunday, the Electronics City division police, along with the prison staff, conducted joint operations and searched the barracks and inmates, including the high-security section.

As many as nine inmates, including convicts and undertrials, were caught with ₹97,270 cash, four knives, five scissors, a SIM card, and a memory card.

The accused have been booked under various sections of Karnataka Prison Act and further investigations are on to ascertain the source of banned items inside the prison.

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Cell phone in prison not an automatic security risk, rules state Supreme Court

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An inmate can’t automatically be designated a security risk for possessing an illegal mobile phone. That ruling was released Friday by the Michigan Supreme Court.

A Michigan Department of Corrections policy says phones, like guns and drugs, pose a threat to security in a facility. That’s why Hamin Dixon, an inmate at the Chippewa Correctional Facility in Kincheloe, had security points added to his record after he was found in a bathroom with a mobile phone, after a search of his cell also turned up a phone charger, and after he pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a cell phone.

That matters because those points help determine security levels and privileges for inmates.

But the Supreme Court, in a closely divided decision, said phones don’t pose the same threat as guns or drugs, and can be used for purposes that don’t pose a security threat.

“A hypothetical threat isn’t enough,” wrote Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack in the majority opinion. Also:

“For example, someone who was not authorized to possess a gun in prison, but was found in possession of one, would threaten the security of a prison through possession alone. But determining whether possession of a cell phone threatens the security of a prison requires an assessment of the accused’s conduct beyond the possession itself because, unlike a gun, a cell phone has many nonthreatening uses.”

Justice David Viviano wrote a dissent:

“Common sense and the overwhelming consensus of legal authorities tell us that prisoners who possess cell phones within the prison walls pose an obvious danger to prison staff and other prisoners, whether or not the phone has been used or is being used at the precise moment of discovery to commit a new crime.”

The Supreme Court decision overturns a Court of Appeals opinion. The high court decision requires Dixon to be re-sentenced.

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