Elgar Parishad: Defence counsel begins cloning of seized docs

Defence counsels claimed that cloning will take a few more days because of voluminous data

The process of copying data from 25 hard discs seized by the Pune police during their arrest of civil rights activists in connection with the Elgar Parishad began on Friday morning.

The accused along with their defence counsels and investigating officer (IO) were present before the special judge RM Pande. (HT/PHOTO)

On June 17, the judge had directed the forensic experts to prepare mirror images of cloned copies of the entire electronic evidence seized by the investigators and hand them over to the accused.

Defence counsels claimed that cloning will take a few more days because of voluminous data.

The accused along with their defence counsels and investigating officer (IO) were present before the special judge RM Pande who directed them to go to the Nazar office (assistant superintendent, treasury) and get the cloned copies.

The defence counsels had complained that their clients were not handed over the cloned copies despite the police submission of chargesheet in the case and also demanded their bail pleas to be reheard after the accused get their cloned copies. Advocate Rohan Nahar, defence counsel for revolutionary writer Varvara Rao, said the cloning started at the directions of the judge and copies will be handed over to the accused soon. The proceeding was videographed by a police cameraman from Pune city commissionerate video and photographers wing.

“Cloning one hard disk is taking between two to two and a half hours and each of the accused is to be given a cloned copy. The process is likely to take three to four days. The future course of action will be decided after each of the accused gets a cloned copy,” Vitankar added.

Investigating officer ACP Shivaji Pawar said, “We are complying with the court orders and the process is videographed in the presence of the accused, Nazar and defence counsels.” Present in the courtroom were Rao, Sen , Wilson, advocate Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhawale.