JNU violence: Delhi HC issues notice to WhatsApp, Apple, Google to preserve data

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notices to WhatsApp, Apple and Google to preserve the data of phone numbers that appeared in the WhatsApp chat groups where the January 5 attacks inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University were purportedly planned.

The notices were issued with respect to a petition filed by three senior professors of the varsity, which sought the court to give appropriate directions so that the data from these groups can be preserved for investigation.

Professors Ameet Parameswaran, Atul Sood and Shukla Vinayak Sawant had filed the petition in the High Court amid fears of evidence tampering by the administration of the university and also sought necessary directions to the Delhi Police Commissioner and Delhi government in this regard.

In fact, the petition, filed through advocates Abhik Chimni, Maanav Kumar and Roshni Naamboodiry also sought necessary directions to the Delhi Police to preserve all CCTV footage of the campus during and the time leading up to the January 5 attacks.

Delhi Police, through its lawyer, told the court on Monday that they had sought the relevant CCTV footage from the university administration and also sent a notice to WhatsApp to preserve data pertaining to two chat groups - 'Friends of RSS' and 'Unity Against Left'.

However, the university administration has claimed that CCTV footage from the day of the attacks could not be stored because students, including JNUSU President, Aishe Ghosh had allegedly destroyed the server room on January 3 and 4. The administration had filed police complaints in the incident and named Ghosh in it, claiming that the servers, including the Group Mailing Service, had been damaged and only came back on January 8.

But the administration had sent several emails between January 5 and January 8 to faculty and students of the varsity from the same Group Mailing Service housed in the Communication and Information Systems building, which was allegedly vandalised by students.