| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. Bhima Koregaon case: Key evidence against accused was planted using malware, says digital forensics report A report by Arsenal Consulting, a digital forensic analyst from Chelsea, U.S., has debunked the electronic evidence gathered by the investigating agency against 42-year-old Rona Wilson and 15 others arrested in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, including Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawale, Arun Ferriera, Vernon Gonslaves, Sudha Bharadwaj and P. Varavara Rao. Arsenal Consulting, which was roped in by the American Bar Association to examine the clone copy of the hard disc of Wilson's computer, has stated that a hacker controlled his computer for a period of 22 months to plant documents, which led to an investigation that supposedly unravelled a Communist Party of India (Maoist) conspiracy to eliminate Prime Minister Narendra Modi "in another Rajiv Gandhi type incident". Wilson has filed a writ petition before the Bombay High Court seeking a quashing of the FIR and chargesheet against him in the light of this report. His petition explains how a hacker exploited the IP addresses provided by one 'Host Sailor' and used proxy servers to plant a "trojan horse NetWire". This initially subjected Wilson to surveillance, and later on, remotely through the malware, delivered various files, including the incriminating correspondence with other accused. It was this correspondence that was used, first by the Pune Police and later by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), as incriminating evidence against the activists, read the petition. "This is one of the most serious cases involving evidence-tampering that Arsenal has ever encountered," the report said. It concludes that ten crucial documents, along with various others used to incriminate all the accused in the case, were planted through malware on Wilson's device by an unknown person. China's military claims both sides have begun disengagement from Pangong lake China's military announced on Wednesday that frontline troops from India and China had begun disengaging from the north and south banks of Pangong Lake, where both sides have been locked in a stand-off for months.At the time of writing, the Indian Army was yet to release a statement on the development. The statement from China's Ministry of Defence said this followed a consensus reached at the last round of talks between Corps Commanders on January 24. People's Liberation Army (PLA) Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, said in a statement issued in Beijing, "According to the consensus reached by the ninth round of the commander-level talks between China and India, the frontline units of the Chinese and Indian armed forces on the south and north banks of Pangong Lake started to disengage synchronously in a planned manner."  A view of the Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh region. File The Indian Army has, however, not yet confirmed the development. Twitter withholds some accounts after govt. orders, says in a blog that it won't block media accounts Twitter on Wednesday said in a blog post that it has withheld "a portion" of accounts which the Indian government had directed it to block for allegedly spreading misinformation about the farmers' protest. It, however, added that actions were taken only against selected accounts as Twitter did not believe that the government's orders were "consistent with Indian law". "Twitter has been served with several separate blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act," the company said in a blog. "Out of these, two were emergency blocking orders that we temporarily complied with but subsequently restored access to the content in a manner that we believe was consistent with Indian law." Twitter said that since the government had sent it a notice for non-compliance, it wanted to clarify the steps it took to censor harmful content. The platform had unblocked 250 accounts tweeting with an alleged objectionable hashtag on February 1, just hours after withholding them.  In a blog post, the micro-blogging platform said it took a range of enforcement measures, including permanent suspension in certain cases, against more than 500 accounts escalated across all Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) orders for clear violations of Twitter rules. "We took steps to reduce the visibility of the hashtags containing harmful content, which included prohibiting them from trending on Twitter and appearing as recommended search terms," the company said. "We took a range of enforcement actions – including permanent suspension in certain cases – against more than 500 accounts escalated across all MeitY orders for clear violations of Twitter's Rules." Significantly, it added, "Because we do not believe that the actions we have been directed to take are consistent with Indian law, and, in keeping with our principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression, we have not taken any action on accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians. To do so, we believe, would violate their fundamental right to free expression under Indian law." Govt responds to Twitter's blog post on Koo Amid the ongoing tussle between the government and Twitter, Union Ministers and government departments have been setting up accounts on Koo, a made-in-India alternative to Twitter. Union Minister Piyush Goyal, for instance, on Tuesday announced on Twitter, "I am now on Koo. Connect with me on this Indian micro-blogging platform for real-time, exciting and exclusive updates. Let us exchange our thoughts and ideas on Koo."  Koo was among the winners of the AatmaNirbhar App Innovation Challenge. Today, in response to the blog post by Twitter, the government said in a post on Koo, "Upon the request of Twitter seeking a meeting with the Govt., the Secretary IT was to engage with senior management of Twitter. In this light a blog post published prior to this engagement is unusual. Govt. will share its response soon." Parliamentary proceedings: PM staunchly defends three farm sector laws Replying in Lok Sabha to the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi staunchly defended the three contentious farms laws and attacked the Opposition for "misleading" farmers, saying those who are disrupting the House are doing so as per a "well-planned strategy" as they are unable to digest that people can see the truth. "Through their games, the trust of the people can never be won," he said, amidst protests by the Opposition members. During his over 90-minute address, the Prime Minister slammed the Congress as a "divided and confused party" for its different stands in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on the debate. Seeking to allay apprehensions on the farm laws, Modi said neither any agriculture 'mandi' (market) has shut down after the three laws were enacted nor has the MSP stopped, rather the MSP has only increased, which no one can deny. The Congress walked out of the Lok Sabha as PM Modi explained the government's stand on the three farm laws.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks in the Lok Sabha on February 10, 2021. Noting that the kind of investment farming needs was not happening, Modi said there is a need to bring investment and modernise agriculture to empower the sector. "I am surprised for the first time a new argument has come — we did not ask, so why did you give. Be it issue of dowry or triple talaq, no one had demanded laws to deal with them, but the laws were made as they were necessary for a progressive society," he said. During the discussion the Union Budget, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor asserted that the government has deceived the people. "Government has deceived us in terms of health care allocation. FM said the allocation was 137% on the previous year but she didn't keep her word. Betrayal of our health care workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic," he said, adding, "No relief in tax rates for middle class. As for the poor, young, aspirational, they too have been failed. MGNREGA allocation slashed by 35% at a time of record unemployment levels. Education budget sees a 6% cut. Sainik Schools are in desperate shape. Any dreams Indians had of good days, was cremated at the altar of the disastrous decision of demonetisation." Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 1,08,69,821 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,56,740. In Brief: The Supreme Court has stayed a Delhi High Court decision ordering private unaided and government schools to provide gadgets and Internet packages to students from economically weaker sections (EWS) for online classes initiated during the Covid-19 lockdown. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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