Rabia had moved the high court seeking directions to the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) to unlock the Blackberry smartphone used by accused Sooraj Pancholi
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to grant relief to Rabia Khan, mother of actor Jiah Khan who committed suicide in 2013.
Rabia had moved the high court seeking directions to the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) to unlock the Blackberry smartphone used by accused Sooraj Pancholi, which is seized by the police, and permission to check messages and data stored in the phone.
Khan has been pressing for applying a serious charge of murder under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Pancholi. However, the agency has charged Pancholi with abetment to suicide.
Advocate Abad Ponda, appearing for Rabia, argued that the CBI should unlock the phone, and that in this new age of technology advancement, they can not stop further probe just because the accused is unwilling to share his password. He relied on the FSL, Gandhinagar report, which is a part of the chargehseet, which states that "attempts to retrieve the data failed as the password to the handset was not available".
Justice Mridula Bhatkar rejected the plea as the issue was dealt with earlier by an another bench of the high court. But it reprimanded the agency by saying, "In today's time, technology and science has gone way ahead. Recently, with the help of data retrieved from a phone, I could hear the voice of the deceased in an open court, even months after she had died."
Advocate Hiten Venegavkar, appearing for the agency, opposed the plea by saying, "Proper investigation has been done by the CBI and accordingly charge sheet has been filed. The victim's family cannot keep raising new doubts of the probe every few months."
Ponda said, "There are experts both in London and Mumbai who can retrieve data from a phone without the password. I am (Rabia Khan) the mother of the deceased and I want to know what happened to my child before she hung herself." The court, however, turned down Ponda's request.
Pancholi was arrested on June 10, 2013, following Jiah Khan's suicide. On July 2 the same year, the HC had granted him bail. After a petition seeking transfer was filed by Rabia, the case was transferred to the CBI in July 2014. After the transfer, the investigation agency refused to charge Pancholi with murder charges, Rabia claimed.
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