A court here will hear on August 1 an application filed by the Goa Police for a directive to BlackBerry to open the cellphone of Tarun Tejpal, accused of sexually assaulting a journalist colleague, by bypassing the pass code to access the data in the device.
The prosecution approached the Fast Track Court on Friday after the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad, said the data could not be analysed as the phone had a pass code.
In reply to the application, counsel for Tejpal said collection of evidence was strictly the duty of the police, except if otherwise provided for in the Criminal Procedure Code, and hence the prosecution could not seek the court’s assistance. Moreover, the phone was operated and used by the investigating agency after its seizure.
The prosecution submitted a clone copy of the remaining exhibits of the charge sheet to counsel of Tejpal as agreed before the court earlier.
The accused recently got bail from the Supreme Court.
The sexual assault allegedly took place in a hotel in north Goa during a Thinkfest event of the Tehelka magazine last November.
