: Actor Dileep, and other accused in the case relating to a conspiracy to do away with the investigation officers in the actor sexual assault case, submitted their mobile phones before the Registrar General of the Kerala High Court as directed by the court on Monday, January 31, 2022 morning.
As many as six mobile phones were produced before the Registrar General in sealed boxes.
The court is likely to hear the anticipatory bail pleas by actor Dileep and others in the case in the afternoon.
The court had on Saturday, January 29, 2022, directed the actor and other accused to hand over the mobile phones to the Registrar General when their anticipatory bail pleas had come up before the court. The prosecution had then submitted that the petitioners were not cooperating with the investigation and that despite the crime branch’s demand, the petitioners had refused to handover certain mobile phones used by them to the investigation officer.
Dileep and other accused opposed the demand of the prosecution arguing that any directive to produce the mobile phones would amount to a violation of their right against self-incrimination guaranteed under Article 20(3) of the Constitution. In fact, some phones had been sent by the petitioners themselves for forensic examination and data retrieval. So, the data retrieved could be handed over to the crime branch, they submitted.
However, the court did not accept the argument and held that they could not keep the phone under the pretext that they had been sent to their own forensic experts. The court had observed that only the agencies identified by the Centre government under section 79-A of the Information Technology Act could be allowed to conduct a forensic analysis of a mobile phone and the petitioners could not entrust the phones to any persons of their choice to examine or extract data from the phone.
The court had also held that the prosecution had every right to seek custody of the phones for forensic examination by agencies identified by the Centre government.
