In the backdrop of the multi-agency investigation into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, the role of digital forensics science has come to the fore with digital data being extensively used in the investigation, people familiar with the probes said.
Multiple Central agencies — the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Narcotics Control Bureau — have been looking at various angles in the case.
Licensed equipment, software and algorithms are being used to investigate digital data when the accused refuse to open up.
Investigators said they had managed to retrieve significant and relevant data (from storage devices and from the cloud), which had been either erased or overwritten or simply hidden.
After retrieving, they analysed, dissected and reconstructed the data to use in the investigations and deciding on the future course of action.
In the fast-paced digital and cyber forensics work undertaken by experts, this is possibly for the first time that latest digital/ cyber forensics tools and techniques from the U.S., Israel and Germany were deployed in India for gathering crucial information while adhering to the Evidence Act and the IT Act, people in the know said.
For the first time ever, sharpest investigative minds familiar with traditional methods and the best-in-class digital forensic sleuths collaborated to reach at conclusions. So one does not hear anything on the money laundering allegations levelled by the late actor’s family these days and rather the probe has moved towards drug consumption and peddling in the Hindi film industry in general.
Investigative bodies said they found evidence from 2017 and beyond. The investigation was not just restricted to mobile devices but also to emails, online drives, hard disk drives, cloud logs.
In today’s digital world when every person or crime leaves a digital trail behind, investigative bodies such as the NCB is believed to have used cyber-digital forensics to prove consumption, possession or peddling because no matter how hard the accused try to erase their trails, the digital trail can never be fully eliminated or erased.
Commenting on the trend, former law enforcement officer & digital fraud investigator Makarand Wagh, managing director, Macans Infotech said, “There is a thin line between accessing evidence and destroying evidence.”
“We always use the best licensed equipment and complex software from the West and Israel to avoid compromising the integrity of the evidence, which happens if one uses unlicensed equipment, tools and software from the open source,” he said,
“We offer the most comprehensive and exhaustive forensics-related certification and safety backups to all customers be it from the private or government sector during the investigations,” Mr. Wagh said.
According to legal experts, forensic digital crime experts can provide circumstantial evidence to the investigative bodies up to the time of the filing of the FIR, but the courts will only rely on primary evidence. Thus the digital data helps in strengthening the case or deciding in closing it.