7/11 blasts: ATS says call detail records of accused were deleted

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Tuesday informed the Bombay high court that the call detail records (CDR) pertaining to the 13 alleged SIMI activists arrested in the case were available but deleted as they were not used as evidence.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Tuesday informed the Bombay high court that the call detail records (CDR) pertaining to the 13 alleged SIMI activists arrested in the case were available but deleted as they were not used as evidence.

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Advocate general Darius Khambata submitted this before justice AM Thipsay, who was hearing petitions filed by some of the accused seeking direction to a special MCOCA court to recall certain witnesses including the nodal officers for cross-examination regarding availability of CDR. The accused contended that the ATS had, in 2006, relied on the CDR recovered from their mobile phones while seeking their remand but had not produced them in the charge sheet filed against them.

Advocate Yug Chaudhary, appearing for the accused, argued that irrespective of what was in the CDRs, his clients had the right to peruse them. Khambata submitted that the data analysis cell of ATS had procured the CDRs of the accused soon after their arrest. However, they were deleted after a year as the prosecution was not relying on it as evidence, which is a normal procedure, he said.

He said the police official in-charge of the data analysis cell would file an affidavit to this effect before the high court on October 22. The accused had first made the demand for the records in the MCOCA court earlier this year. After the ATS told the court in July that it did not have CDRs, the accused persons moved the high court last month.