The Hindu : National : Schoolboy sent to observation home

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 22, 2004

National

National

Schoolboy sent to observation home

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 21. A juvenile justice court here today sent the schoolboy allegedly involved in the video clip scandal to Prayas Observation Home till January 4. He was detained on Sunday and produced before the court which sent him to one-day police charge the following day.

The police today informed the court that the boy had destroyed his mobile phone and the chip in which the video clip had been stored. During questioning, he allegedly told the police that he had filmed the act in July.

Hismobile set was enabled with Bluetooth technology which extends the facility of wireless connectivity between the internet, computers, mobile phones and other devices. Bluetooth works on global radiofrequency.

Through this technology, the boy's classmate living in his neighbourhood transferred the film on to his mobile set a few days after the incident and then allegedly forwarded it to his friends, according to the police. It was by October-end that the boy came to know that the video clip had been widely circulated after a fellow-student showed the film to him. Afraid of the consequences, he informed his parents about the whole episode following which his room, where the act had been filmed, was allegedly rearranged and his mobile phone, along with its SIM card, were destroyed, according to the police. As the mobile phone and the SIM card cannot be retrieved for use as evidence, the police have reportedly recorded the voice sample of the student to match it with the one in the video clip which they obtained from one of the eight persons who had allegedly bought it through baazee.com from the IIT-Kharagpur student, Ravi Raj.

"The clip must have reached Ravi Raj either through Bluetooth technology or e-mail. It could not have been forwarded to him in any other way," said a police officer.

Though the police have obtained the inquiry report prepared by the school authorities on how exactly the video clip was circulated among the students, they went to the school today to question a student who had obtained the film.However, he did not turn up. The other student, who is suspected to have sold the video clip, has been expelled from the school and the police are now planning to summon him on Wednesday.

The police have also started retrieving mobile phone records of the two students to establish that they had forwarded the video clip. Through this, they intend to reconstruct the chain through which the clip reached Ravi Raj. Meanwhile, they added Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code to the case against the student for having destroyed evidence.

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