Karnataka High Court issues instructions to Investigating Officers during Search of Smartphones, Laptops, Electronic Gadgets, Email Accounts [Read Judgment]

Karnataka High Court - Search - Investigating Officers - Smartphones - Laptops - Electronic Gadgets - Email Accounts - Taxscan

The Karnataka High Court issued the instructions to Investigating Officers during Search of Smartphones, Laptops, Electronic Gadgets, Email Accounts, etc.

The Petitioner, Mr. Virendra Khanna is an IT Engineer, having studied in M/s RV College of Engineering, Bangalore. He was selected as Software Engineer, during the process of on-campus recruitment by Accenture, IT company, Bangalore, where he worked for one year and thereafter resigned to do his self avocation of organizing events and parties in 5-star hotels and other events by obtaining license and permission from the police department.

The petitioner sought the direction of appropriate nature in quashing the order directing the Petitioner to co-operate for unlocking the mobile phone.

A single bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj said that 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.

In the case of a personal computer or a laptop the court issued various directions.

When carrying out a search of the premises, as regards any electronic equipment, Smartphone, or an e-mail account, the search team will be accompanied by a qualified Forensic Examiner.

“When carrying out a search of the premises, the investigating officer should not use the computer or attempt to search a computer for evidence. The usage of the computer and/or search should be conducted by a properly authorized and qualified person, like a properly qualified forensic examiner,” the court said.

At the time of the search, the place where the computer is stored or kept is to be photographed in such a manner that all the connections of wires including power, network, etc., are captured in such photograph/s.

The front and back of the computer and/or the laptop while connected to all the peripherals to be taken.

A diagram should be prepared to show the manner in which the computer and/or the laptop is connected.

If the computer or laptop is in the power-off mode, the same should not be powered on.

If the computer is powered on and the screen is blank, the mouse could be moved and as and when the image appears on the screen, the photograph of the screen to be taken.

If the computer is powered on, the investigating officer should not power off the computer. As far as possible, the investigating officer to secure the services of a computer forensic examiner to download the data available in the volatile memory i.e., RAM since the said data would be lost on the powering down of the computer or laptop.

If the computer is switched on and connected to a network, the investigating officer to secure the services of a forensic examiner to capture the volatile network data like IP address, actual network connections, network logs, etc.,

The MAC address also to be identified and secured.

In the unlikely event of the Forensic examiner not being available, then unplug the computer, pack the computer and the wires in separate faraday covers after labeling them.

In case of a laptop if the removal of the power cord does not shut down the laptop to locate and remove the battery.

If the laptop battery cannot be removed, then shut down the laptop and pack it in a faraday bag so as to block any communication to the said laptop since most of the laptops nowadays have wireless communication enabled even when the laptop is in the stand by mode.

Seizure in case of networked devices to ascertain as to whether the said equipment is connected to any remote storage devices or shared network drives, if so to seize the remote storage devices as also the shared network devices.

“To seize the wireless access points, routers, modems, and any equipment connected to such access points routers, modems which may sometimes be hidden,” the court said.

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