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The Karnataka High court recently held that the investigating agency cannot retain the username and password of a person during the investigation. The agency can download and store the required data but it cannot have the person's passwords. Justice Suraj Govindraj said, “...an investigating agency cannot retain the user name and password of social media/digital platforms like Facebook and YouTube pending investigation, he investigation agency can download the data required from such account and thereafter has to give back the changed credentials to the person who own the said social media"
The writ petition was filed by the Managing Director and editor of the news channel 'Power TV' Rakesh Shetty. The petitioner approached the high court to quash an FIR registered by Bengaluru police against him making corruption allegations against the chief minister. He claimed that his password and username were taken by the CCB (City Crime Branch) and later when he asked for his password after the required data was taken they refused to provide him the same and thus he could not get access to his social media to account as his password was wrongfully changed. Further, he contended that as a journalist he needed access to his account for his work.
The Court ordered the crime branch to handover the new login credentials to the petitioner within a time frame of 7 days. The Court also allowed and acted on behalf of Shetty's prayer seeking the return of the servers, laptops, and harddisks seized from his office and residence. Further, the Court said that the petitioner was rightfully entitled to file an application under Section 451 CrPC before the lower court seeking the return of the electronic equipment. However, the bench refused to quash the FIR against him.
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