In a significant development in the high-profile POCSO case, Telangana police discovered that the prime accused, Bandi Bhagirath, allegedly destroyed crucial digital evidence before his arrest. Investigators revealed that immediately after the case was registered at the Petbasheerabad police station on May 8, Bhagirath switched off his high-end iPhone. While evading the police, he reportedly executed a calculated plan to delete incriminating videos, data, and entirely wipe his social media accounts to escape legal consequences.
Upon his arrest, when law enforcement officials officially seized his phone, they discovered that the SIM card had been removed and the internal storage was completely empty. Suspecting that the device had been subjected to multiple factory resets to conceal the crime, the police have formally added Section 238 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)—which replaces the erstwhile Section 201 of the IPC for causing the disappearance of evidence. Despite the rigid security barriers of iOS, the police are deploying advanced cyber forensics, collaborating with the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to extract deleted chats, photos, and videos using international data recovery software like ‘Cellebrite.’ Officials are also prepared to access backup data from Apple iCloud servers via court orders if required.
To ensure an airtight prosecution despite the physical data deletion, investigators have activated ‘Plan B,’ shifting focus to secondary digital footprints. Forensic teams are thoroughly examining cell tower mapping and Call Data Records (CDRs) to track Bhagirath’s movements and network connections prior to turning off the phone. Furthermore, police are treating the victim’s mobile device as a primary source of evidence, retrieving all ‘received data’ including threatening text messages, multimedia files, and shared links sent by the accused. Legal experts emphasize that attempting to tamper with or tarnish evidence in a sensitive POCSO case significantly increases the gravity of the offense and invites harsher judicial penalties.
