NEW DELHI: In a significant development to ensure police officials awareness of the submission of authenticated electronic evidence to courts, the Supreme Court recently, in an order, urged the State of Tamil Nadu to give proper training to its police officials in connection with the issue.The apex court made these remarks after getting to know that the investigating officer (IO) who was in charge of probing a 2010 kidnapping case in Tamil Nadu allegedly appeared to be unaware of the procedure to be followed under Section 65B of the Evidence Act, which deals with the submission of authenticated electronic evidence in criminal cases.The two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Abhay S Oka and also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, made the observations after not getting satisfied answers with respect to the IO’s answer on the submission of authenticated electronic evidence in criminal cases.The Apex Court was dealing with two appeals filed by appellants (accused)—William Stephen and one another—challenging a 2016 Madras High Court judgement which had sentenced two men to life imprisonment for kidnapping a child for ransom.The two appellants had been accused of kidnapping an eight-year-old child and demanding a ransom of Rs 5 lakh from the parents of the child through a mobile phone call.The top court went on to make it clear that the IO cannot be blamed for this, as proper training was not imparted to him. “The state government must ensure that the police officers are imparted proper training on this aspect,” the apex court said in its order.
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