Jodhpur, Aug 13 In an alleged security breach, five case files related to FIRs registered by the Rajasthan Police SOG were removed from the High Court’s Jodhpur bench’s electronic system using an employee’s ID, resulting in their deletion from the cause list and forcing the hearing to be stalled on August 5, police said on Thursday.
The electronic system provides online case status tracking, live display boards, e-filing facilities, digital cause lists, and paperless court proceedings for specific cases, such as bail.
The alleged tampering took place on July 31, just days before the hearing.
A case was registered on August 12 at the Kudi Bhagtasani police station after a complaint by Rajasthan High Court Registrar (Judicial) Devendra Singh Bhati.
Police have booked unidentified persons for offences including criminal conspiracy, theft and cybercrime.
“We have filed an FIR and initiated an investigation into the matter,” Station House Officer Somkaran said.
According to the complaint, at 5:36 pm, five petitions were entered in the cause list for Court No. 25 using the login credentials of a judicial assistant from the Cause List Section.
The matters were assigned serial numbers 196 to 200, and a printed copy of the list was prepared and forwarded to the concerned court.
But at 6.24 pm, all five cases were allegedly removed from the court’s computer system using the user ID of another employee. The deletion went unnoticed until August 4, when lawyers appearing in the matters raised questions after finding that the cases were absent from the cause list for the following day's proceedings, the complaint stated.
Following the lawyers' inquiries, officials from the Cause List Section searched for the corresponding physical files in the concerned courtroom. However, the files could not be traced.
The missing files related to miscellaneous criminal petitions seeking quashing and clubbing of FIRs registered at the SOG police station in Jaipur.
The petitioners had also obtained interim protection from arrest from the court.
Police are now examining the electronic trail to determine how the cases were deleted, whose credentials were used to access the system and whether anyone within the court establishment was involved.
System logs, user activity and the role of employees associated with the relevant IDs are being scrutinised as part of the investigation, police said.
