JNU violence: Delhi HC directs police to seize phones of Whatsapp group members

The Delhi High Court has instructed the police to seize mobile phones of the members of two WhatsApp groups allegedly used to coordinate the January 5 mob attack on JNU students and faculty. 

The cops have been directed to summon all individuals who are part of either one or both groups and confiscate their phones as part of the ongoing investigation into the horrific attack that left 34 people injured. The court has also asked Google and WhatsApp to act as per the law and preserve and provide all data - messages, photos, etc. - sought by the police as part of their investigation into the attack.

Justice Brijesh Sethi of the Delhi High Court also told Dr Pramod Kumar, the JNU Registrar, to cooperate and provide the cops with all information requested, after it was told yesterday that the university had yet to respond to police notices.

On Monday the court issued notices to WhatsApp, Google, Facebook and Apple Inc. after three JNU professors sought preservation of relevant data and information relating to the violence. It also asked for responses from the cops and the government.

WhatsApp had told the court it did not have access to the messages because its contentious end-to-end encryption system meant the messages and data could only be accessed through the mobile phone that sent the information or the ones that received it.

In their plea the three professors - Ameet Parameswaran, Shukla Sawant and Atul Sood - had asked for data from two groups 'Unity against Left' and 'Friends of RSS', both of which authorities believe is linked to the mob attack.

The plea also assumed importance after it emerged that CCTV footage - from 135 cameras installed across the 1,000-acre campus - was not immediately available because of a damaged computer server at the university.

Three days ago the police said they had identified around 37 members of the 60-member 'Unity against Left' group; 10 of those were not current JNU students, the cops, who had earlier admitted to scouring social media posts for evidence, said.