The Calcutta High Court today directed CFSL Hyderabad to ascertain whether the Narada tapes and devices used to record an alleged sting operation against Trinamool Congress leaders are genuine or not.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A Banerjee ordered the director of Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Hyderabad to make preliminary inquiry to find out whether the devices used in the 'sting' and the recordings are tampered, engineered, doctored or genuine.
It directed the CFSL to complete the analysis within four weeks of being given the recordings and devices -- an iPhone, a laptop and a pen drive in which the recordings are stored.
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The court observed that as a preliminary step it has to first ascertain whether the devices are tampered, engineered, doctored or genuine.
The purported recordings, which were released by Narada News a few days after elections to the West Bengal Assembly were announced, show Trinamool Congress MPs and state ministers allegedly taking money.
The court said that as per Narada News editor-in-chief Mathew Samuel's affidavit, the alleged sting was recorded on iPhone, the recordings were then transferred to a laptop and then the recordings were transferred to a pen drive.
Noting that Samuel had handed over the iPhone and pen drive to a court-appointed three-member committee but not the laptop, the bench directed him to go to Hyderabad and hand over the laptop to the CFSL director within a week.
The bench directed the high court registrar (original side), who is the chairman of the committee, to personally hand over the iPhone and pen drive to the CFSL director.
It further directed that the report of the analysis should be kept confidential by CFSL and that it shall be collected by the chairman of the committee personally and placed before the court.
The bench noted that Samuel had put a condition that the cost of laptop be deposited before handing it over and observed that Samuel was the person who initiated the matter and as such cannot put conditions while directing him to go and hand over the laptop to CFSL director.
(REOPENS LGC 1)
Passing the order, the division bench said all
contentions, including the question of maintainability of the PIL, were being kept open.
The court said at this stage it was not dealing with the merits of the petition, which had prayed for a forensic analysis of the recordings and the devices to prove genuineness and a subsequent investigation by an independent agency.
Stressing the sensitivity of the matter, the court observed that it would speak volumes if the information was genuine and would also speaks volumes if the information was not genuine as it involved the confidence of the common man in the system.
The court observed that despite opposition from some of the respondents in the matter, it felt that an analysis can be done at this stage in the light of verdicts of the Supreme Court which indicated the categories of cases where preliminary enquiry can be done.
Counsels for some of the respondents, who were purportedly shown receiving money in the recordings, submitted before the court that Samuel had refused to come down to Kolkata to hand over the recordings and the device to the court citing personal security concerns.
However, they pointed out, he came over to the city and held a press conference a few days after the recordings and the device were secured from him by a court-appointed committee in New Delhi.
The matter would appear before the court after the forensic analysis reports are submitted before it.
