Guidelines needed for cops to seize electronic devices: HC

The police department should prepare detailed guidelines for the Investigating Officers (IOs) on the filing of search warrants for electronic devices required for an investigation, the Karnataka High Court has said.

Quashing the trial court’s orders allowing the Central Crime Branch (CCB) to subject Sandalwood drug case accused Viren Khanna to a polygraph test and directing him to reveal passwords of his smartphone and email account, Justice Suraj Govindaraj said in his order that the prosecution should seek the court’s warrant to search a smartphone or email account.

Once the warrant is issued, it is up to the accused to provide the password. If the accused refuses to provide the password, the court could direct the service provider to open or unlock the equipment or an email account on an application filed by the prosecution.

The bench said the court can even permit the IO to hack into a smartphone or email account, if the service provider cannot open the device.

“It would be in the interest of all the stakeholders that detailed guidelines are prepared by the police department in relation to the same. Pending such formulation, it would be required that the following minimum guidelines are implemented,” Justice Govindaraj said.

Some of the guidelines provided by the court included that a qualified forensic examiner should accompany the search team, photographing the place where the computer is kept, a diagram to explain the manner in which the computer and/or the laptop is connected, and the computer should not be powered on if it is in the power-off mode.

In the case of a mobile phone, the police should prevent the device from communicating wirelessly, the device should be packed in a faraday bag, should be charged throughout to save the data in the volatile memory and the sim card should be packed separately in a faraday bag.

The court cited a Supreme Court order and held that no polygraph test can be administered without the consent of the person concerned.