The court raised this question while hearing a plea filed by meat exporter Moin Akhtar Qureshi who had challenged his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case
Can messages sent on Blackberry messenger (BBM) be read as evidence, after the Supreme Court judgement on Right to Privacy, was the question asked by the Delhi High Court to the Centre. The court raised this question while hearing a plea filed by meat exporter Moin Akhtar Qureshi who had challenged his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.
A bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Nazmi Waziri asked the counsel, representing the Centre and the ED, that whether BBM messages was admissible as evidence after the apex court's ruling.
"Whether these private messages would be admissible as evidence. Privacy has been held as integral part of Article 21 (life and liberty) of the Constitution. Please examine, as we would like to know it," the bench asked.
The ED had said that Qureshi was arrested on the basis of BBM messages exchanged between him and former CBI Chief AP Singh and several persons accused in other criminal cases.
The court, while issuing a notice to the Centre and the ED, sought their response within five days thereby fixing the next date of hearing to September 13.
During the proceedings, advocate R K Handoo, appearing for Qureshi, contended that he was illegally detained by the investigative agency. He also claimed that subsequently he was arrested without giving proper grounds of arrest.
However, the standing counsel for Central government Anil Soni said that there was due compliance of the constitutional mandate regarding informing a person about his arrest.
The bench, however, said a person cannot be taken into custody without telling him the grounds and giving him an effective legal aid."Information is not just to make a person read the grounds of arrest. You have to give him a copy of it," the bench said and asked the Centre and ED to show the records pertaining to the arrest on September 13.
"You cannot deny liberty to someone without grounds. We are afraid that this may take us to dark ages. It is negating the constitutional mandate."This is our prima facie view, so you have to show us the files.
Qureshi was arrested on August 25 and sent to five-day custody of the ED by a trial court the next day for thorough investigation in the case against him and others in a case of money laundering.
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