Mumbai: Not entertaining the plea of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Antilia security scare case seeking to forego supplying electronic evidence to accused persons as it is “voluminous” and hence expensive to do so, a special court has said supplying evidence is mandatory and that it must do so in three months.
The court however considered the voluminous nature of the evidence and asked the NIA to supply it to those accused who have connection with the evidence.
Accused persons had strongly opposed the agency's plea
The NIA had told the court that the electronic evidence is so voluminous that it would cost 40 lakhs and 258 days or eight to nine months to supply it to the accused. The agency cited a provision of the CrPC and said there is no need to supply the specific data.
The accused persons had strongly opposed the plea of the agency and argued that the entire case is based on electronic evidence and it is necessary and hence the copy of the electronic evidence is necessary to get a copy of it. They further said that merely because of the cost involved, it would not be right to deny them the right to it. The defence further said that the provision referred to by the NIA relates to bulky documents and not to electronic evidence.
Special Judge AM Patil said in the order that as per the ratio laid down by the apex court in an order, it is mandatory for the prosecution to supply all electronic evidence to the accused. The court said the agency cannot take the advantage of the specific CrPC provision. “The court is duty bound to issue suitable directions to meet the ends of justice,” Judge Patil said.
