Calcutta High Court has asked the special investigation team (SIT) that is probing the death of IIT Kharagpur student Faizan Ahmed to take steps to send the iPhone of the deceased to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Gujarat and get a report at the earliest.
The court issued the order after being told by the SIT that the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Chandigarh where the phone had been sent could not open the device.
Justice Jay Sengupta of the high court said in his written order last week: “It appears that the iPhone in question can only be opened by the Gujarat FSL. This was intimated to the Investigating Agency only yesterday. Let SIT take the necessary steps to have the phone sent to the Gujarat FSL and obtain a report in this regard at the earliest.”
During the hearing, the lawyer appearing for forensic medical expert Ajay Kumar Gupta, under whose supervision the second autopsy on Faizan was performed in Kolkata in May last year, said samples of Faizan’s body were sent to him by the investigating agency on March 16.
The court had on February 7 told the SIT to send the samples to Gupta.
The second post-mortem was performed after the body was exhumed, on an order of Calcutta High Court, from a burial ground in Assam’s Dibrugarh, Faizan’s hometown.
The findings of the second post-mortem suggested that Faizan’s death could
be homicide.
The first post-mortem, conducted at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital in October 2022, was inconclusive.
Faizan’s decomposed body was found in a hostel room on the IIT campus in October 2022.
“He (Gupta) needs some more time to submit a report. Let such report be submitted to the Investigating Agency within a fortnight from this date,” Justice Sengupta had said on March 18.
The case will be heard again on April 26.
“The court had formed the SIT in June last year with the hope of an expedited probe. But the SIT is delaying the probe,” said Niladri Sekhar Ghosh, one of the lawyers representing Faizan’s family.
A member of the investigating team said: “We are approaching the agencies so the phone can be opened. By the next hearing we will wrap up the probe.”