CDs not evidence enough in court of law

Ashwin Raj / TNN / Sep 15, 2006, 23:02 IST

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Do the Bellary bribery CDs released to the media have legal sanctity? No, opine legal experts.

BANGALORE: Do the Bellary bribery CDs released to the media have legal sanctity? No, opine legal experts. With a flurry of CDs containing video footage of alleged bribery payments to politicians sparking off a furore, a pertinent issue has cropped up - the admissibility of such material as evidence in a court of law.
According to legal experts, the CDs which suspended BJP MLA Janardhan Reddy claims have footage of the transactions between mine owners and CM H D Kumaraswamy among other senior politicians are, however, not admissible as evidence.
Former State Public Prosecutor H S Chandramouli said CDs can be treated only as information for enquiry or investigation to put criminal law into motion. In the present case, the evidentiary value can not be got into at this juncture.
"Suspicions cannot take the place of proof. It is (the CDs) unauthenticated information and can become evidence only if it is found so after subjecting to judicial scrutiny or investigation. Chargesheet cannot be filed with this evidence,"Chandramouli said.

It could throw light on circumstantial evidence and the admissibility of such evidence will come in only in the trial after investigation.
However, if the CDs are found fabricated, it amounts to perjury (giving false evidence) and misleading the court.
It is punishable under Section 191 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) among other sections of law. While the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 does not allow such video footage as evidence, that which has been recorded as part of investigation by a state or central agency is admissible.

If the court takes cognizance of the material, it would be sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for verification to check various factors including morphing and authenticity of voice.
"It would depend on the court's order to conduct various tests on the material,"FSL director B M Mohan said. Reddy's counsel C V Nagesh had said that the relief sought in the petition filed before the Karnataka High Court was for a CBI probe.
The next hearing on Tuesday could be crucial with the defence likely to submit more material in support of their case.
The arguments would be based primarily on documents made available to the court, and not so much with the CDs, he added.
However, evidence collected and available in the CD should be incriminating against the accused, he added. "For instance, the video footage of exhumation of Shakira Khaleeli is admissible as it was done in the process of investigation by the police,"an advocate said. The CDs produced by Reddy could be used as a lead in investigations. Cyber law expert Joga Rao said that under relevant provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act, a CD is a digitised document.
Though it can be submitted before court as evidence, it should comply with three principles - must contain relevant evidence, must be admissible and appreciated by the court. "Such material, though submitted, will first have to be proved for its authenticity and relevance. Only then it becomes permissible as evidence under relevant provisions of the IT Act,"Rao added.

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