Last Update: January 15, 2023, 22:36 IST
A CBI team on Saturday reached the office of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia seeking some records related to the Delhi Excise Policy case, according to agency officials. (File photo: PTI)
Sisodia alleged that he had ‘clear apprehension that CBI has seized CPU to destroy confidential files/documents and will implant/edit files in CPU’
In the wake of the CBI raid on his office, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday termed the entire exercise as an “act of malice”, pointing out how the agency raided his office on the second Saturday (an official holiday) and handed him a Gave handwritten notice. Secretary to confiscate a computer from the conference room.
“CBI maliciously trying to implicate me, has seized computer without providing hash value. I have clear apprehension that CBI has seized computer to destroy confidential documents, implant files in CPU To falsely implicate me as my name does not figure in the CBI chargesheet. In the absence of recording the hash value during the seizure, the CBI may at its convenience change the record in the seized CPU, Sisodia said in a statement.
“Yesterday was second Saturday, so my office was closed, when some CBI officials telephonically informed my PS to come to the office and open it. When my PS reached the office around 3 pm, they saw that a team of CBI officers was already present in my office. The CBI officials asked them to open the office and took them to the conference room. As soon as he reached the conference room, he saw a computer installed in it, asked my PS to switch it on, assessed the same, and immediately, handed over a notice u/s 91 CrPC to the Secretary, Deputy CM (GNCTD) . Investigation RC0032022A0053,” he said.
Sisodia said that according to the notice, the secretary was requested to present the CPU of the system installed in the conference room.
“Subsequently, the CPU was seized from the conference room of my office without following the prescribed procedure. From the perusal of the said notice, it was observed that the notice was hand written to the Secretary, and immediately the property (CPU) was seized which shows malfeasance on the part of the officer. The said conduct/act of the CBI officers also shows their malice by which the notice was given and the said property was immediately seized, that too in compliance with the guidelines laid down in Chapter XVI: Cyber Crime, CBI (Crime) Manual 2020 Without. It is clearly mentioned in the said CBI Manual at Chapter XVI, 16.19: Collection of digital evidence should be in accordance with legal requirements.”
Sisodia underlined that “the integrity of the seized electronic device/digital device is paramount to establish the case, it is important to ensure that the hash value of the data record is taken by the investigating officer at the time of seizure.” The details of hashing for authenticating electronic records are given in section 3(2) of the IT Act, 2000.
The hash value is essentially an electronic fingerprint. Data within a file is hashed through a cryptographic algorithm known as a hash-value. This is a string of data variables. The key is to determine and validate the integrity of the data in question. The CBI Manual also mandates that at the time of seizure of an electronic document, an image of the same shall also be generated and the said image shall also be hashed and matched with the hashing of the date of seizure to ensure data integrity.
“Therefore, it is a matter of record that as per the seizure memo provided to us by CBI after the seizure, no ‘hash value’ was taken and mentioned in the seizure memo by the officer who seized the CPU, Nor did the CBI create an image of the seized document and hash it,” he claimed.
Sisodia said: “I have a clear apprehension that the CBI has seized the CPU to destroy confidential files/documents and will implant/edit the files in the CPU and use it to falsely implicate me because my name CBI is not in the charge sheet. as an accused in connection with the above case.”
“Though the CBI/ED investigation in the Excise matter is going on since last August, 2022, it has not revealed any material against me. However, even after the charge sheet has been filed, the CBI is still continuing with its fishing and angling probe in the matter. The act clearly demonstrated that none of the procedural safeguards were followed which would have ensured the integrity of electronic documents as mandated under the CBI Manual and the IT Act. Therefore, the electronic evidence seized yesterday has lost its authenticity and integrity in the eyes of law.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)