SC orders Prabhakar Rao to provide iCloud ID, password in phone-tapping case

In a significant development in the case, the Supreme Court has asked former intelligence wing head T Prabhakar Rao who is facing charges of phone-tapping to provide the correct ID and password for his iCloud and other backups to the investigating agency.

“As and when the petitioner is summoned, he shall take steps to reset and activate the password in the presence of forensic experts as submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner,” a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan ordered. The court was hearing the State’s application to vacate its order granting Rao interim protection from arrest.

Appearing for the State, Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta said there was no progress due to lack of cooperation from Rao. He said the facts are shocking and that the officer had formatted his devices, thereby destroying electronic evidence.

Senior Advocate D S Naidu, appearing for Rao, denied that he was not cooperating. He said everything the investigators asked for had been shared with them except the password to his personal iCloud devices. He added that the investigators have Rao’s devices and submitted that Rao had been summoned 11 times and questioned for 18 hours and it was recorded.

On the iCloud password, he said, “I (Rao) have forgotten that. It is a very old account”. He offered to reset it in the presence of forensic experts.

When Justice Nagarathna referred to the charge that he had deleted data from the devices, Naidu said it was not Rao but the department computer experts who deleted it following standard security protocol. “I am not the only one in the department…I have not deleted anything on my own…If only I deleted, the information should still be there in the department…It is a norm that is practised in any security department,” he submitted.

Justice Mahadevan pointed out that it was only Rao who had access to his iCloud account and asked, “What is the guarantee that you have not deleted anything from it as of now?”

Naidu said “electronic footprints will be there…it cannot be erased” and computer experts can check. He said all official devices have been handed over and only his personal account is there which has nothing official.