‘Can’t risk violating privacy’: Court rejects businessman’s plea to inspect devices of co-accused in excise policy case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the case, had found nothing incriminating in the devices, while both the co-accused had objected to Dhall’s demand.

“No such parallel investigation should be allowed by any accused, as this would otherwise lead to an endless cycle of such proceedings. After all, every accused in a criminal trial claims that he was prejudiced by an unfair investigation concerning him and by the omission of facts that may have favoured him,” said the Judge in his order.

“Requesting inspection without a specific or justified reason, or simply hoping to find something useful, amounts to a fishing expedition. Such a broad, unfocused search without clear limits or scope amounts to a roving inquiry. It not only wastes the court’s time but also risks violating privacy rights and could amount to harassment or oppression of the device owners,” the Judge added.

The court said Dhall’s plea to inspect the devices of the co-accused was part of his effort to build his defence. “…..If he is not planning to use any content from those devices, then why does he need to see them? The purpose of inspecting the devices is to find evidence that can be used to support his defence, which poses a serious risk to accused 5 (Mahendru), accused 7 (Pillai) and others,” the court noted.

Just because the two accused and others voluntarily disclosed their passwords to the investigating agency, they cannot be compelled to reveal them again for Dhall or anyone else, the court noted. It stressed that courts had to be “especially cautious when digital devices containing sensitive, private or personal data” are examined and that such an inspection, which could violate privacy, can not be considered an “unfettered right”.

“Since the CBI could not find anything related to the dispute in those devices, allowing a parallel inquiry would be equivalent to conducting a separate trial for each device, which could be extremely risky for a criminal court to undertake. No such pre-trial inquiry should be permitted,” the court stressed.

The CBI arrested Dhall in April 2023. The Delhi High Court granted him bail in the money laundering case related to the alleged scam in September 2024. One month later, the Supreme Court granted Dhall bail in the CBI case.