The Kerala High Court on Tuesday sought the response of the State government on sending the memory card containing the visuals of the sexual assault on the actor to the Central Forensic Laboratory, instead of the State laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram.
Justice Kurian Thomas made the oral observation when a petition by the Crime Branch challenging the trial court’s order dismissing its plea for sending the memory card to the forensic lab in Thiruvananthapuram came up for hearing.
The Director-General of Prosecution while opposing the suggestion of the court contended that it would send a wrong message if it was sent to the Central laboratory. It was just like entrusting an investigation to the CBI after saying that the Kerala Police were incapable of investigating the issue.
The court also orally observed that merely because there was a change in the hash value, the prosecution would not be able to identify who all had accessed it. In fact only the date of access alone could be determined. Even in the case where the hash value had been changed due to tampering with the document, the prosecution could not identify what was tampered with.
The court also noted that as per Section 195 of the Criminal Procedure Code, when a document was in the custody of a court, even if there was any tampering, the investigation officer could not do anything.
The court adjourned the hearing in the case. to June 23.
