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More explanation sought from CBI

Forensic lab informs High Court that it sent three CDs on Abhaya case to CBI

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday sought further explanations from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the number of compact discs (CDs) containing the narco-analysis tests conducted on three suspects in the Sr. Abhaya death case.

The court sought the explanation in view of a letter it received from B.M. Mohan, director, Forensic Science Laboratories (FSL), Bangalore. The letter said it was impossible to write all data on three CDs (in the Sister Abhaya case) on a single CD.

Justice V. Ramkumar had sought clarifications from the director in view of the CBI’s stance that it had received only a single CD from the laboratory.

Mr. Mohan, in his letter, said a CD is writable to a maximum of 700 MB. But all space on a CD cannot be used as some buffer space needs to be left out for performing “sessions closed.” The buffer space left on CDs varies from one manufacturer to another, in the range of 15 MB to 20 MB. Therefore, it would be very safe to write a CD only up to 650 to 670 MB. In the Abhaya case, “it is impossible to write all data present on the three CDs (400 MB, 499 MB and 229 MB) on a single CD.”

In her report, S. Malini, assistant director, Forensic Psychology Division, FSL, said the CDs on the narco-analysis tests conducted on the three suspects contained data up to 400 MB, 499 MB and 229 MB. She said it was impossible to write the revelations of the three suspects on a single CD. She said the three CDs were put in a cover and this cover along with the reports was put in a bigger cover, sealed and handed over to the CBI. She said it was inadvertently mentioned as ‘original CD’ instead of ‘original CDs’ in a covering letter forwarded to the CBI along with the CDs.

In view of the explanations from the laboratory authorities, the court sought further explanations from investigation officer R.K. Agarwal, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dy.SP), CBI. Though the court directed CBI counsel to produce his explanation on Thursday itself, the investigation agency sought three days. The counsel submitted that he was unable to get the explanations on Thursday itself as Mr. Agarwal was on his way to Delhi by train.

The court expressed its doubts about the CDs received by the CBI on a petition filed by Abhaya’s father.

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