Pune : Pune Rural Police have filed a 5,300-page chargesheet in the Lohagad Fort murder case against Ketan Agarwal, Siya Goyal and Chetan Choudhary. Investigators reportedly relied on photographs that tourists had taken without realising their significance, along with eyewitness accounts, social-media records and digital communications.
According to the police, photos taken by unrelated tourists allegedly place the accused at the fort on the day of the incident. The chargesheet reportedly also includes material on social-media accounts allegedly used to lure the victim to Lohagad, and messages allegedly discussing the planned assault.
Police have also reportedly moved to appoint senior advocate Ujjwal Nikam as special public prosecutor in the case.
The legal angle : Evidence of this kind can carry weight because it was not created for the prosecution. Digital evidence still has to be proved, however. The prosecution must establish its authenticity, its chain of custody, who created it and why it is relevant, and electronic records must meet the statutory requirements for admissibility. The defence is entitled to test all of this.
A chargesheet of this size also shows how phones, social-media accounts, call records and location data now produce thousands of pages of material in serious cases. That puts pressure on trial courts to conduct a fair and efficient trial. Every piece of evidence must be connected to a relevant fact and proved according to law.
The accused are presumed innocent until the prosecution proves its case at trial.
