Right to fair trial is a constitutional right and any evidence, including electronic data, which may assist an accused in establishing his innocence, cannot be excluded merely on technical or procedural grounds. While observing this, the Special Judge, CBI court, Chandigarh, has directed telecom companies to preserve call details exchanged between ASI of Chandigarh Police Hitesh Kumar and complainant from June 1 to 7, along with the tower location and customer application form.
The court has directed that the call details must be preserved and forwarded by the telecom service providers concerned to the court in a sealed envelope, to be opened at a relevant stage during the trial for the defence of the accused on his request. The CBI court has passed the order on an application of the ASI arrested in a bribery case.
The CBI has arrested the ASI, deputed at the Sector 39 police station, red-handed on June 6 while accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 from the complainant against the demand of Rs 50,000 for release of his car and for not registering a case against him related to an accident.
The CBI registered the FIR on June 6 against Hitesh on the basis of a written complaint dated June 4 by a person named Amarjeet Singh. After registration of the case, a trap was laid by a CBI team and the accused was caught red-handed on June 6 while allegedly accepting the bribe of Rs 40,000 from the complainant.
Counsel of the applicant argued that the telephone call details for the abovesaid period, including internet usage, cell ID location chart and customer application form (CAF) of mobile numbers of the accused and the complainant, are sought from the service providers concerned to prove the false implication of the accused in the case and to confront prosecution witnesses.
However, the CBI opposed the application. The public prosecutor of the CBI said that the present case was still under investigation and it was not the appropriate stage for seeking a copy of the CDRs, etc. of the relevant mobile phones.
After hearing the arguments, the CBI court said that the right of the accused to invoke the provision of Section 94 BNSS for obtaining documents in support of his defence has been recognised by the constitutional courts. Denial of an adequate opportunity to the accused by non-production or non-preservation of the electronic records would amount to miscarriage of justice. The right to a fair trial is a constitutional right and any evidence, including electronic data, which may assist an accused in establishing his innocence, cannot be excluded merely on technical or procedural grounds, it added.
As such, the call details exchanged between mobile numbers for the said period, along with the tower location and CAFs of the mobiles are ordered to be preserved and forwarded by the telecom service providers to the court in a sealed envelope, to be opened at the relevant stage during the trial in the defence of the accused-applicant on his request, the court further said. However, to safeguard the privacy of the complainant, it is made clear that all remaining call details and the locations of the two given mobile number unrelated to the calls exchanged inter se will be hidden by the service providers.
