Local commissioner appointed to oversee sealing of Mehmood Pracha's computer

New Delhi: In a one of its kind move, a Delhi court on Saturday has appointed a young counsel as a local commissioner who will supervise the sealing and seizure of the computer source from Advocate Mehmood Pracha's office by the Delhi Police Special Cell in connection with a case lodged against him in a Delhi riots case.

An Advocate, Avneet Kaur, was appointed as the Local Commissioner after Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana noted that she is the youngest counsel present in the courtroom.

The court also directed that the fees of Rs. 25,000 for the appointment of the Local Commissioner shall be borne out by Pracha.

"It is jointly proposed at the bar that in order to ensure the purity and sanctity of the data of the data in question, a Local Commissioner be appointed and the charges of the Local Commissioner shall be borne by the revisionist," ASJ Rana noted in his order.

The court also directed that the proceedings of the seizure be videographed.

Advocate Pracha on Friday had moved the Sessions Court challenging the order by the Magistrate court rejecting his application against Delhi Police Special Cell's raids in his office that occured earlier this month.

"The plea of the applicant about his offer of target data in Pen drive can only be considered by the IO subject to the issue of admissibility and Court's intervention is not proper and also accused cannot dictate the IO about the mode and manner for collection of evidence in an investigation..." the court nited, adding that, "...in the considered view of this Court, the objections raised by applicant are baseless. Let the search warrant be executed in accordance with law subject to the safeguards as per the expert opinion."

Observing that the collection of evidence is intrinsic to the investigation and hands of the investigators cannot be tied to prevent them from Collecting Evidence, the Court held that: "The collection of data from its source is done to ensure its admissibility during trial and it is imperative for IO to collect best form of evidence during investigation as per their own discretion".