Criminal Writ Petition No. 21733 Of 2008
High Court of Judicature at Allahabad
BENCH: Hon’ble Mr. Krishna Murari J., Hon’ble Mr. Akhilesh Chandra Sharma J.
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 22-02-2018
BRANCH OF FORENSIC SCIENCE: Voice analysis (Forensic Physics)
RELEVANT SECTIONS/ACTS:
Indian penal code (IPC) act, 1860
- Section 20 – “Court of Justice”
- Section 121- Waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India.
- Section 153 – Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause a riot—if rioting committed.
- Section 295 – Punishment of offences committed within India.
- Section 147- Punishment for rioting.
- Section 395 – Punishment for dacoity.
- Section 436 – Mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy a house, etc.
- Section 435 – Mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage to the amount of one hundred or (in case of agricultural produce) ten rupees.
- Section 302 – Punishment for murder.
- Section 427 – Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees.
- Section 452 – House-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault, or wrongful restraint.
- Section 143 – Punishment.
Prevention of Damages to Public Property Act, 1984
- Section 3 – Mischief causing damage to public property.
- Section4 – Mischief causing damage to public property by fire or explosive substance.
The Code of Criminal Procedure(CrPc), 1973
- Section 156(3) – Any Magistrate empowered under section 190 may order such an investigation as mentioned in the act.
BACK STORY
This case is all about the five accused persons namely, Yogi Adityanath (A-1), Dr. Radha Mohan Das Agrawal (A-2), Y.D. Singh (A-3), Anju Chowdhary (A-4) and Shiv Pratap Shukla (A-5) Minister of State and B.J.P. leader and other office bearers and thousands of activists of ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’, Bharatiya Janata Party and Vayapar Mandal Gorakhpur and unknown persons called ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’ had been spreading hatred among Hindu and Muslim.
On 02.11.2008 Social Activist, Parvez Parwaz (petitioner) filed the writ petition in crime no. 2776 of 2008 at police station Cantt, Gorakhpur against all the accused (1-5) indicating that on 27.1.2007 when he was returning home from the railway station Gorakhpur at about 8 P.M, the said member of Parliament along with other B.J.P. leader were holding called as ‘warning meeting and Yogi Adityanath was saying that if the blood of one Hindu is shed then they will not register any F.I.R. with the administration instead they get 10 Muslim killed and also said anything can do to save the glory of Hindu and all should prepare for a fight.
The investigative agency then forwarded the recorded compact disc (DVD) containing the speech of accused Yogi Adityanath (CD-1) and the admitted voice of alleged accused Yogi Adityanath (CD-2) for comparison to C.B.C.I.D. for forensic examination on 02.7.2014 to ”Vidhi Vigyan Prayogshala”, Lucknow and to the ‘Vidhi Vigyan Prayogshala”, Madhuvan Chowk, New Delhi but both labs returned the evidence due to some technical and lawful issues. Then finally evidence send to the Laboratory of Central Bureau of Investigation, C.G.O. Complex, New Delhi for spectrographic voice and video analysis.
VIDEO IDENTIFICATION REPORT
The forensic video examination of DVD conducted by Photo & Scientific Aids Division Forensic Expert P.K. Gottam, Sr. Sci. Asstt. (Photo) to check the authenticity, editing, and tampering under CFSL No.:- 519/14 (Photo Division) and it was submitted by an analyzed report that DVD contained videos are not original they edited and tampered.
VOICE IDENTIFICATION REPORT
Forensic voice examination of Questioned voice(CD-1) and specimen voice of Yogi Adityanath (CD-2) transferred to Speech Science Laboratory done by forensic expert Subrat Kumar Choudhury under physics division The voice spectrographic examination of questioned voice samples marked exhibits CD-1 and specimen voice samples marked exhibits CD-2 reveal that the questioned voice samples marked exhibits (CD-1) are similar to specimen voice samples marked exhibits CD-2 respectively in respect of their form and frequencies distribution, intonation pattern, no. of formants and other general visual features in spectrograms.
Hence, the voice marked exhibit CD-1 is the probable voice of the person (Yogi Adityanath) whose specimen voice is marked exhibit CD-2
JUDGEMENT
Due to tempered and edited DVD reported by the forensic expert, the similarity of voice analysis also comes in doubt and Writ petition must fail and accordingly stands dismissed and accused were acquitted from all the charges in previous F.I.R. filed during the investigation
In 2008, court framed charges against accused Yogi Adityanath and another leader for committing offences punishable under r Section 153, 153A, 153B, 295, 295B, 147, 143, 395, 436, 435, 302, 427, 452 I.P.C. read with Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act IPC. later on, the accused Adityanath also had acquitted of offence punishable section mentioned above Finally on 22nd February 2018, the Allahabad High Court dismissed the writ petition due to tempered and edited DVD reported by the forensic expert as a result of which the similarity of voice analysis also comes in doubt.