The Calcutta High Court has instructed the special investigation team (SIT) assigned to investigate the death of IIT Kharagpur student Faizan Ahmed to promptly send his iPhone to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Gujarat for analysis and to expedite the report.
Following information from the SIT indicating the inability of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Chandigarh to access the deceased IIT Kharagpur student Faizan Ahmed's iPhone, the Calcutta High Court has directed the SIT to promptly dispatch the device to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Gujarat for analysis and to hasten the generation of the report.
Justice Jay Sengupta of the high court said in his written order last week: “It appears that the iPhone in question can only be opened by the Gujarat FSL. This was intimated to the Investigating Agency only yesterday. Let SIT take the necessary steps to have the phone sent to the Gujarat FSL and obtain a report in this regard at the earliest.”
In the court proceedings, the lawyer representing forensic medical expert Ajay Kumar Gupta, who supervised the second autopsy on Faizan conducted in Kolkata last May, stated that samples of Faizan's body were sent to Gupta by the investigating agency on March 16th.
On February 7th, the court had instructed the SIT to forward the samples to Gupta. The second post-mortem, mandated by the Calcutta High Court, was conducted after the exhumation of Faizan's body from a burial ground in Assam's Dibrugarh, his hometown.
The results of the second post-mortem indicated that Faizan's death might be a case of homicide. The initial post-mortem, conducted at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital in October 2022, yielded inconclusive findings. Faizan's decomposed remains were discovered in a hostel room on the IIT campus in October 2022.
“He (Gupta) needs some more time to submit a report. Let such report be submitted to the Investigating Agency within a fortnight from this date,” Justice Sengupta had said on March 18.
The case will be heard again on April 26.
“The court had formed the SIT in June last year with the hope of an expedited probe. But the SIT is delaying the probe,” said Niladri Sekhar Ghosh, one of the lawyers representing Faizan’s family.
A member of the investigating team said: “We are approaching the agencies so the phone can be opened. By the next hearing we will wrap up the probe.”
