The special court probing the actor rape case said on Saturday that probe agencies must find out the owner of the Vivo phone having a Jio sim card, which is said to have accessed the contents of the memory card which was being handled exclusively by the probe team led by Crime Branch personnel.
The phone can be traced based on the tower location and that it would be improper to place anyone under a shadow of doubt, until there is clarity on the alleged change in hash value of the memory card. Stating that an investigating officer suggested she view the visuals, the presiding officer of the court said she refused to see them. It needs be verified only as part of the trial into the case, she said and asked whether the team would conclude the probe into the case. The next hearing has been posted for Tuesday.
Earlier this week, the prosecution had submitted before the Kerala High Court, that the hash value of the card in which the visuals of the alleged rape were recorded had been found changed thrice, indicating that it was accessed as many times. It further sought three more weeks to look into the latest forensic report on the changed hash value of the memory card.
The card was found accessed last on July 19, 2021. While there was a change in the hash value of the memory card, no changes had been noticed regarding the hash value of the visuals, it said. The cloned copy of the forensic image of the memory card needed to be produced before the trial court, in the wake of the analysis carried out at the Forensic Science Laboratory. The forensic expert who carried out the analysis also needed to be examined. The investigating agency would require further time to collect the materials and produce them before the trial court, it submitted.
