'Preserve electronic accounts involved in criminal activities'

New delhi: The Crime Branch of Delhi Police has now asked Deputy Commissioners of Police to take necessary action on instructions given by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) which is related to the preservation of electronic accounts involved in criminal activities.

As per advisory sent by MHA to all chief secretaries, senior police officials, there are many cases, involving the use of electronic media, where data is required to be analysed and requests are sent to foreign countries for obtaining the details of electronic accounts (email, Facebook, WhatsApp) under the mutual legal assistance framework.

"It is seen that sometimes no record is found of the given electronic account even when the account ids are correct. Resultantly, the central authority of the foreign country concerned is not able to preserve or execute the request and such denials have the potential of adversely affecting the investigation," the advisory read.

The advisory further read: "The aforesaid challenge is often a result of the time that the investigating agency may take in sending data preservation requests to service providers on the registration of the criminal case, which is further aggravated by the delay in sending the letter rogatory, mutual legal assistance request."

As per the letter, "In this context it is important to ensure early preservation of electronic records needed for the investigation, prosecutions as regarding digital record this is of the essence and criminal often delete their electronic accounts and data to evade the law or to remove their digital footprints."

According to MHA official, it is further advised that even after sending letter rogatory or mutual legal assistance request, the data must be continuously re-preserved until requisite data is received from the service provider

concerned.

"Please bring these instructions to the notice of all law enforcement agencies concerned under your control for strict compliance," the official told chief secretaries and senior officials.

After receiving the letter, the crime branch wrote to DCPs and told them to take necessary action from their end under intimation to the authority concerned.