Lakshadweep filmmaker and social activist Aisha Sultana, against whom a sedition case is on, told the Kerala high court yesterday (July 27) that she was scared, evidence may be planted against her in her cellphone and her brother’s laptop, both of which had been seized. Instead of sending them for forensic examination to either of Madras, Hyderabad or Kerala, as is the norm for devices seized from Lakshadweep, her electronic devices had been sent to Gujarat, she said. Aisha said this in the affidavit filed in response to the Lakshadweep administration’s allegation that she was not cooperating in the probe and had deleted some text messages from her phone after the island police registered the case against her.
Aisha added that although the phone and the laptop had been seized on June 25, they had not been produced in court till July 15. Aisha had said in a television interview on a Malayalam channel that the central government used COVID-19 as a bio-weapon against the people of Lakshadweep.