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In a setback to investigation agencies, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that mere movement of SIM card would not be sufficient to prove the movement of the person allegedly using the SIM card.
A bench comprising Justice AB Chaudhari and Justice Kuldip Singh stated. The court was hearing appeals challenging a judgment passed on March ,2012 by the Additional Session Judge, Patiala, who convicted four people under Section 120-B(criminal conspiracy),313(causing miscarriage without women’s consent),365(abduction) and 344(wrongful confinement for ten or more days) of the Indian Penal Code.
The case involved murder of Harpreet Kaur, the daughter of one of the convicts,by administering her drugs that were intended to lead to the termination of her pregnancy.
The prosecution had sought to zero in on the whereabouts of the convicts to establish the existence of conspiracy by relying on call details from March 18, 2000, the date when Harpreet was abducted from the house in Chandigarh, till the termination of pregnancy on March 19,2000 and again around her death on April 20, 2000.
The court however expressed that the reliance placed on the call details and the record is of no use or assistance to the prosecution because of three reasons. First,it pointed out that the investigating officer did not seize any of the mobile phones or the SIM cards in respect of which the evidence of call details has been relied upon. There were no explanations as to why that was not done.
Secondly, it noted that the prosecution did not prove that mobile phones allegedly used by the accused were registered in their name, owned by them or were physically in their Possession.The court then allow the appeals and acquitted the accused.
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