Actor Assault Case| Kerala High Court Allows Crime Branch’s Plea Seeking Forensic Analysis Of Memory Card
Case: State of Kerala v. XXX
Coram: Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas
Case No.: OP(CRL.) NO. 257 OF 2022
Court Observation: “If in case, during the trial, the Court is called upon to form an opinion on the electronic document, especially that relating to the change in hash value or the details of the memory card, the prosecution must be able to provide the requisite evidence. The opinion of the Examiner of the electronic record becomes a relevant fact under section 45A of the Indian Evidence Act 1872. If the Investigating Officer is not provided with an opportunity to produce before the Court such opinion, which may explain the change in the hash value or its impact, it can lead to a failure of justice. Therefore, declining to allow the request to forward the document for analysis is a manifest error and the same requires to be corrected.”
“Notwithstanding the above, it needs to be observed that the investigation cannot be permitted to enter into a roving enquiry into matters which it has no authority to pursue. Access to a document after it was produced in Court cannot be a matter of investigation or relevant for investigation under any circumstances whatsoever, since only the Court can pursue that, in view of the bar in taking cognizance under section 195 of the Cr.P.C. As a means to ensure that the investigation is in consonance with the provisions of the Code, the Court can certainly sieve the requirement of analysis of the already marked document.”
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Keywords
Actor Assault Case, Forensic Analysis
