A crucial piece of evidence in the sexual assault case against former Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna – an iPhone that was used to record videos of the crime against a domestic worker – was not recovered during the investigation. However, information obtained from Apple, combined with statements from the survivor and witnesses, besides scientific evidence gathered by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka Police together resulted in Prajwal’s conviction.
A special court for elected representatives on Saturday sentenced Revanna to life imprisonment for the rape of a domestic worker at his family’s farmhouse, in the first of four cases of rape and sexual harassment that emerged after explicit videos recorded by the former MP himself emerged in public last year.
Prajwal, the grandson of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and the son of the former Karnataka minister H D Revanna, was convicted of raping the woman while “being in a position of control or dominance”.
The special court has in its order termed the crime a “grave offence” and one committed by a person with sophisticated means, while appreciating the stand of the victim and the SIT’s efforts in establishing the evidence to prosecute Prajwal.
‘Prosecution’s task Herculean’
“The allegations which were levelled and also the nature of the materials which were required to be collected clearly indicates that it is a case of its own kind where explicit and obscene videos of several respectable women in society, involving the accused, went viral without the trace of original video/image…the task of the prosecution was Herculean in nature,” the special court judge noted in his 480-page verdict.
One of the biggest hurdles in the investigation was proving that the videos of sexual assaults on the domestic worker and others were genuine and recorded by the former MP himself on an iPhone that is believed to have been destroyed after the videos emerged.
The SIT proved that the videos were genuine using multiple techniques like video analysis, voice sample testing, superimposing of images of the assaults with images of the location of the assault, as well as forensic comparison of body parts of Prajwal with the images seen in the videos, apart from DNA matching of hair follicles and stains found on clothing of the victim found at the farmhouse.
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Conviction for destruction of evidence
Besides convicting Prajwal to life imprisonment for rape, the special court also convicted him for destruction of evidence in the form of the original recordings on the iPhone.
“The prosecution has also proved the fact that the accused had recorded the act of forcible sexual intercourse in his mobile phone which could not be secured/seized and though the accused had feigned his ignorance of recording the incident or owning a mobile phone, certain suggestions were put forth during the course of cross-examination by the accused that he had owned an Apple iPhone and also the data collected from Apple.com would justify the case of the prosecution,” the ruling stated.
“Since the mobile phone was in the custody of the accused, it was his bounden duty to produce the same and even for the sake of argument if it is contended that he had lost the same, it would have been different. But denial of possessing the same is falsified by the evidence which is obtained from Apple.com company…,” the court observed.
It further stated that since the device was not to be found, “the submission of the prosecution that he had destroyed the mobile phone to screen the evidence is to be accepted and accordingly the prosecution has proved their case beyond reasonable doubt with respect to commission of offence under Sec 201 of IPC (destruction of evidence).”
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The special court also noted that “the alleged incidents were captured and recorded by accused Prajwal Revanna in his mobile phone in order to pressurise the victim to accede to his request is also proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt.”
Accused indirectly implied he used iPhone
The special court referred to statements made by Karthik N – Prajwal’s former car driver who allegedly accessed the MP’s iPhone secretly – about his knowledge of the password “8055” (BOSS) and documents furnished by the Apple company to substantiate the fact that the video recordings were done on the then MP’s phone.
Referring to a reply provided by Apple to an SIT query, the court observed that the response “when considered with suggestions put forth by the accused during the course of cross-examination of PW-10 Karthik that 8055 was not the password of his iPhone, the same would lead to draw an inference that the accused had admitted categorically of using iPhone at that point of time”.
The court also noted that “even in the absence of the original…the report of the FSL would indicate that the videos were not edited or morphed”.
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Specially mentioning the efforts of the SIT headed by B K Singh, Additional Director General of Police, Crime Investigation Department (CID), the court said that “the SIT formed for investigation of the aforesaid case are to be appreciated for conducting and analysing the digital evidence with the help of forensic experts…”.
The SIT adopted and utilised “modern technology of scientific examination…to lend assurance to the evidence of the victim,” the court noted, adding that for the first time in Karnataka, “the SIT had requested the Forensic Science Laboratory to superimpose the images of the environment of the room found in the videos with that of the images which were captured scientifically during the course of investigation and also to examine the image patterns, voice analysis in a scientific manner.”