Phone seized from accused replaced to benefit him: CBI

Tribune News Service

Amit Sharma

Chandigarh, April 20

The CBI investigation into a case against Inspector Ram Rattan and Sub-Inspector Satyawan of the UT police has revealed that the duo had dishonestly replaced the iPhone seized from sexual harrasment accused Anil Malhotra to give undue benefit to him. Malhotra’s phone was replaced with another phone and sent to the CFSL.

In April 2022, an FIR was registered at the Industrial Area police station against Malhotra, who was subsequently arrested. Later, a cancellation report was filed by the police, which was accepted by court. Malhotra was the Executive Director of a city mall when the incident took place.

Tower location of phones of victim, husband obtained illegally

• The CBI inquiry revealed that Inspector (Communication) Pavnesh Kumar and former SP (Communication) Roshan Lal allegedly illegally obtained the location of two mobile phone numbers of the victim and her husband and provided the same to Anil Malhotra, the accused.
• The inquiry revealed that on September 19, 2020, a request of tower location of the two mobile numbers was received at the police headquarters from Inspector Pavnesh. The request was forwarded to the telecom service provider.
• During inquiry, it was revealed that Inspector Pavnesh was allegedly verbally asked by former SP Roshan Lal to provide the location of mobile numbers to Malhotra.
• Subsequently, a case under Sections 120-B and 420 of the IPC, Section 26 of the Indian Telegraph Act and Section 72 of the IT Act-2000 was registered by the CBI against Inspector Pavnesh and former SP Roshan Lal.

CBI sleuths claimed that Inspector Ram Rattan, who was then the SHO of the Industrial Area police station, and Sub-Inspector Satyawan, who was probing the case, returned iPhone 12 and the SIM card to Malhotra and replaced it with iPhone 7 without a SIM card.

The CBI probe revealed that the cops destroyed the original seizure memo dated April 4, 2022, and created a false document dated April 9, 2022, to justify their illegal acts.

The inquiry revealed that certain documents like a

copy of a draft letter addressed to the Director, CFSL, request for issuance of docket by the SHO and report of the SHO bore the description of a different mobile phone than the one finally forwarded to the forensic lab.

During the inquiry, the data of the seized mobile phone was obtained from the CFSL, which revealed that the seized device was iPhone 7 and not iPhone 12.

The SIM history of iPhone 7 revealed that SIM was last used in that mobile phone on April 14, 2022, at 7.38 pm. On April 13, 2022, the location of the mobile phone was at Sector 9, Chandigarh. “These facts falsify the police seizure memo dated April 9, 2022, vide which iPhone 7 is shown to have been sealed and deposited in malkhana on April 9,” stated the CBI in the FIR.

An analysis of CDRs (call detail records) and data obtained from the CFSL revealed that on April 14, 2022, Malhotra was in possession of both phones and he had used the same SIM in them. False documents, including seizure memo dated April 9, 2022, entry in malkhana register number 19 and case diary dated April 9, 2022, were dishonestly created, revealed the CBI investigation.

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