ild cdr will help in the investigation of?
This article is written by Wardah Beg, student, Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University.
Through this write-up, I have attempted to clarify what are call detail records, how can they be extracted from network service providers and how can they help you in your case. This article has been written with the view to help an aggrieved party, who could make their case stronger by submitting Call Detail Records to the court, if only such details could be accessed.
Call data records may include information like-
-how many calls a person has made
-to which number
-time and duration of calls
-which tower the person received network from while making the particular call.
The tower is identified by its unique tower number. The location is under a sphere of 500 m, and is not always precise. Though with the introduction of GPS, it is now more possible than ever for law enforcement agencies, in collaboration with network service providers to pin the exact latitude and longitude from where the calls were made, or even to locate the current location of a moving subscriber.
CDRs are different from phone tapping in that they contain information about the results of interaction, rather than the content of the interaction, for example, time, date and duration instead of a recording of what the person talked about on a phone call. Phone tapping is done by both governmental and non-governmental (private) agencies by using equipment. This is mostly done for security purposes, where suspects’ phones are tapped, their exact location tracked and their activities monitored. Private agencies often do it illegally with imported equipment. This, of course, is in violation of the Right to Privacy. On the other hand, Call Detail Records are available with the telecom companies that one is subscribed to. For example, as a user of Vodafone, a person’s CDR will be available with Vodafone only.
CDR details can serve a lot of diverse purposes. They may be required for investigation by law enforcement agencies in solving a particular case, for producing as evidence in the court, for personal use, such as to keep a track of necessary information so as to save it for prospective complaints, tracing missing persons, retrieving lost or stolen mobile phones etc. Over the years, legal extraction of CDR details has helped solve many cases.
According to the Business Standard, the Crime Investigation Division (CID) Branch of Himachal Pradesh Police solved 203 cases in a year through mobile forensic assistance. This involves data like CDR (Call Detail Records), IMEIs (International Mobile Equipment Identity), tower location, CAF (Customer Application Forms), etc. The technical cell of the said branch of CID reports that it receives around a 100 requests a day from investigating agents and return the required information within 12 hours, as they immediately forward the request to telecom companies. This gives us an estimate of how long it takes, through appropriate agencies to retrieve call detail records, which is not more than 12 hours on an urgent basis.
Call Data is stored by telecom companies for a period of 6 months, in accordance with the government guidelines. We will talk more about these guidelines below. Due to high storage costs for the humongous amount of data that could be accumulated (almost amounting to several Petabytes per year, telecom companies choose to store only a limited amount of data, which is six months, or a year and archive the rest of it to tapes. These archives cannot be easily retrieved except in situations where there is governmental pressure, for example, in high profile cases or cases in which there is an immediate threat to national security.
The law relating to data retention is found in ISP and UASL Licenses. The former will be discussed in part 2 of this write-up.
There are, currently, 22 service areas in India, classified into 4 metros: A, B, C, D. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai are the four metros. The four wireless networks in India are:
The first three are privately owned, while the fourth one is State owned. These are all licensed operators and are required to pay some License fee based on their revenue share. As per the License Agreement, these cellular operators can provide a range of mobile services as long as they meet the relevant ITU (International Telecommunication Standards). Services range from voice messages, non-voice messages, data services, etc.
According to Clause 41.20 (xv) of the License Agreement, “Complete audit trail of the remote access activities pertaining to the network operated in India should be maintained for a period of six months and provided on request to the licensor or any other agency authorized by the licensor”.
What that technical jargon essentially means is that telecom companies are required to maintain our CDR for a period of six months.
According to Clause 41.10 of this License Agreement, the aforementioned service providers are required to make necessary arrangement for monitoring the telecommunication traffic and reveal to the State or Central Government all the data relating to it. The requirement specified in the clause is of seamless monitoring of at least 210 simultaneous calls for seven security agencies. Along with that, the following data is also required to be maintained:
iii) Location (alongwith Cell ID) of the target subscribers
vi)CDR of roaming subscriber
The companies are also required to provide, as is mentioned in Clause 41.20 (x), the exact geographical location (BTS location) of the user of the network, at any given point of time.
This information might be of use to an aggrieved party, because sometimes a service provider may refuse to supply CDR of a certain period citing it too old or irretrievable. Many people have reported their service providers to be reluctant in sharing this data citing the same reasons. In such cases, the service provider can be questioned and the license agreement can be referred to.
Initially, most law enforcement agencies could extract CDR. Some of these were:
But due to cases, especially the recent one in which BJP leader Arun Jaitley’s phone was tapped, the government has reissued guidelines regarding extraction of CDR. According to the new guidelines, no officer with rank less than that of a Police Superintendent can obtain CDR from telecom companies.
The amended guidelines essentially are:
Accordingly, every Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) or Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of the district, the Crime Branch, Economic Wing, Special Cell, IG Airport ACP and Special Cell, Crime Branch have been authorised to obtain CDRs.
Although there is no rule as to how fast the companies are supposed to give the data, as mentioned above, if the matter is urgent, that is, relating to a serious issue like a crime or a terrorist activity, and the information is demanded by a relevant authority, the information is given by telecom companies in not more than a few hours. Otherwise, it can several weeks too.
Unless the matter is in court and CDR needs to be admitted to prove one’s case, an individual cannot obtain CDR. This needs to be specified, because a lot of people seek CDR details to spy on their spouses, children, etc. or for other personal purposes. Where CDR details are required urgently for producing as evidence, a person can approach any officer above the rank of a Police Superintendent. A step-by-step guideline is given toward the end of this write-up.
CDR is admissible as secondary evidence in court. With developments in technology, the courts these days are more receptive of different electronic and digital data as evidence. Earlier, it was a necessary requirement for CDR to be accompanied with a certificate as prescribed under Section 65 B (4) of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. Recently, while interpreting Section 65 B of the Act, the Supreme Court has decided that it is not mandatory to submit such a certificate in the interest of justice. Therefore, giving a second chance to people who might not be able to procure a certificate. Moreover, in case such a certificate is absolutely required by the court, it can be submitted subsequently after the filing of the charge sheet.
You can use this format of CDR preservation application for your client:
—————————————————————————–
IN THE COURT OF ,
IN THE MATTER OF
…COMPLAINANT
VERSUS
APPLICATION U/S 91 CR.P.C. ON BEHALF OF RESPONDENT NO. 1 FOR SEEKING THE DIRECTION TO TO PRESENT AND PROVIDE THE CALL DETAILS BOTH INCOMING AND OUTGOING OF THE COMPLAINANT FOR THE PERIOD IN RESPECT OF MOBILE NUMBER
MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH,
It is, therefore, most respectfully prays that this Hon’ble court may kindly be pleased to:
Respondent
Through ADVOCATE
As a result, Priyanka was receiving calls from her Instagram followers soliciting physical relationships in exchange for money. The police lodged an FIR under IPC sections pertaining to stalking and constituted a team to trace the accused.
Among the investigating tools that the police used to track the accused’s exact location, the accused’s call detail records (CDR) played a vital role. Police managed to track his mobile number, through which they contacted the service provider and obtained details about the calls made by the accused as well as their time and duration.
The location of the accused, later identified as Ankit Kumar, a B.C.A. student, was tracked to Uttam Nagar, from where he was arrested following a raid.
In solving cases such as Priyanka’s, the Delhi police have made heavy use of CDR, among other intelligence tools like IPDR (Internet Protocol Detail Record) and the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) of a phone.
IPDR allows the police to track call details made through social media applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram, a mode of communication that is increasingly being used by criminals. Meanwhile, IMEI is a unique number for identifying a device on a mobile network.
Senior officers said CDR has acted as the primary probe tool that helps them recover the accused’s location by zeroing in on the network tower through which the accused made their last call.
“A mobile tower generally covers a distance of 50 metres in radius. The service providers often share with us the longitude and latitude within the tower’s radius under which the call was made,” an officer said explaining how CDR tracking works.
“To access the accused’s CDR, once a crime is committed or after recovering their phone following an arrest, a DCP-rank officer sends a formal request to the network provider under section 91 of CrPC, asking it to provide call details which can go back up to a year, which is the maximum period for which the company holds a person’s call information,” the officer said.
CDR also contains details about the exchange of SMSes on a phone. It, however, does not include the contents of the communication.
“While the CDR does not record the contents of the telephonic conversation, the call details of the accused give us just enough information about their whereabouts and their probable accomplices during the time of the incident,” another police officer said.
The officer added that an accused could be in touch with dozens of people while they are conspiring to commit a crime. “Once we intercept an accused’s calls, we are led to the co-accused as well,” the officer added.
Sources added that the time required to recover CDR depends on a case-to-case basis.
“Generally, we send a request to the mobile company on an urgent basis so that we obtain the CDR and use it with other intelligence tools at our disposal to nab the accused. Most often, they (service providers) provide the details within an hour. But sometimes it takes more than a day,” the source added.
The police officers added that while the CDR has become an important investigative tool, most criminals are now switching to social media applications such as Telegram and WhatsApp to communicate with their accomplices, details of which can only be obtained through IPDR.
“While IPDR does help trace the details of communication that happens through applications like WhatsApp and Telegram, it is not as accurate when it comes to tracing the precise location of an accused,” said an officer.
The officer added that while even CDR could lead to inaccurate inputs at times, in most cases, the CDR helps the police establish the link between a crime and the criminal alleged to have committed it, as it helps police gather more incriminating details about the accused on the basis of their call information.
In order to build its case before the court, the police attach the accused’s CDR, as part of electronic evidence against them, to the chargesheet.
The Magistrate accepts the same only when the guidelines laid down in a Supreme Court judgement, in the 2014 PV Anvar v/s PK Basheer case, are followed.
A senior police officer said, “Court holds CDR to be of great value but it cannot be the sole evidence to implicate an accused, as the calls have to lead to recovery of some physical evidence or an incriminating confession”.
In the Delhi riots cases, courts have primarily taken note of the CDR of the accused persons while passing bail orders and judgements.
In most matters, the courts have granted bail to the accused after observing that the accused’s CDR reveals that he was not at the place of incident or even in its vicinity during the time when riots broke out. Advocate Dinesh Tiwari, who is representing several Delhi riots accused, said: “In several cases, court has also granted bail after observing that the accused resides near the place of the incident and hence his CDR ought to show the same location”.
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)for investigation of Email-based crimes. Call-based crimes, investigation of day-to-day crimes using Call Data Record , Examination of Call Detail Record (CDR). Analysis of IPDR & ILD CDR for crime investigation .
The use of NLD and ILD telecom services is rising due to increasing demand for national and international long distance connectivity and rising demand for international communication services. In addition, the ILD telecom services are being widely accepted due to decreasing international call charges. Furthermore, businesses are expanding around the globe due to globalization, leading to an increasing demand for ILD and NLD services for business procedures. All these factors are expected to drive the NLD and ILD telecom service market over the forecast period. However, government authorities in many countries have certain policies and regulations over NLD and ILD telecom services. In addition, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has set certain penal provisions for these services such as financial penalties. Furthermore, the additional cost required for getaway and landing station setups and high license fees are expected to restrain the NLD and ILD telecom service market. A key opportunistic trend for NLD and ILD service providers in the market is related to NLD and ILD services providers collaborating with domestic mobile service providers. For instance, Bharti Airtel Ltd. has secured license for operating in IDL services.
The NLD and ILD telecom service market is segmented on the basis of service, network use, end-user and geography. By service NLD and ILD telecom service market is segmented into NLD and ILD. By network use, NLD and ILD telecom service market is segmented into private, and third-party network. By end-user, NLD and ILD telecom service market is segmented into enterprise and consumer. By geography, NLD and ILD telecom service market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America and Middle East and Africa. Among these regions, North America and Europe have observed significant growth in NLD and ILD telecom service market due to increased demand from enterprises and advanced technology. Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa are anticipated to witness high adoption of NLD and ILD telecom services due to improving telecommunication infrastructure and increasing adoption of telecom connectivity and services. Government authorities in these regions have defined various regulations for NLD and ILD telecom services. For instance, India government has issued guidelines and regulations such as National Telecom Policy (2012) and satellite licenses for IDL service providers. In addition, India government has regulations for establishments of gateways and landing stations.
The major players in the global NLD and ILD telecom service market include G3 Telecom, Inc., Matrix Telecom, Inc. (Impact Telecom), Lumos Networks, Telecom North America (telna), Inc., Selectcom Telecom, AT&T, Inc., Reliance Communication Limited, Tata Communications Limited, Bharti Airtel Ltd., Spice Communications Ltd., Idea Cellular Ltd., Sify Communications Ltd., and Microsoft Corporation (Skype).
The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.
The study is a source of reliable data on:
The regional analysis covers:
The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industry’s value chain.
A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.
Highlights of the report:
Who can have access to CDR? What is the procedure?
Law enforcement agencies both at the central and state level — the CBI, Income Tax department, intelligence agencies, police, counter-terrorism agencies such as the NIA and the ATS — are allowed access to CDR during investigation, subject to certain permissions.
In 2014, the Bombay High Court also allowed the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to seek CDR to investigate market frauds. Under the rules, only an officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police — a DCP-rank officer in a commissionerate — can write to the nodal officer of a mobile network service provider seeking the CDR of persons in connection to an investigation. Normally, a police station sends the numbers for which they need CDR to the designated police officer who emails it to the service provider.
How long does the process take? The CDRs can be accessed for how long back?
In sensitive cases, such as ones suspected to be linked to terror, murder or a rape when an accused is on the run and has to be arrested, an urgent request can ensure that the CDR is sent in half an hour by the mobile network service provider. In other cases it can take up to a fortnight. Normally, mobile companies allow access to a person’s CDR for up to a year. If there is a need for CDRs from further back, special permission is required from senior police officers.
Can an individual obtain CDR? How did CDRs get leaked to detectives and lawyers arrested by Thane police?
Individuals cannot obtain CDR. In the THane CDR case, the police believe that some detectives managed to illegally obtain the data either from rogue lower-rung policemen of another state or some officials of the mobile network service providers by allegedly bribing them. The CDR of each person cost nearly Rs 10,000-15,000 in this case.
Normally, lawyers wanting to strengthen their cases against rivals, spouses suspecting infidelity, corporates wanting to spy on rivals and insurance companies wanting to check accident details are known to have been clients of these detectives.
How does CDR manage to trace the location of the person? Does it provide the exact location of the mobile phone user?
The CDR relies on the tower location of a person on the basis of which his/her location is traced. In the CDR, the service provider mentions the tower number from which the person received network while making a particular call. The user can then check online the location of that tower by using that tower’s number. A mobile tower normally covers an area of about 500 metres in radius. In several cases, however, the service provider mentions the latitude and longitude within the mobile tower’s radius from where the call was made. Using GPS apps, the police are able to pinpoint the location of the person within the 500-metre area.
What are the uses of getting the location of a person?
Getting the location of a person plays an important part for both the police in their investigation and to prove their case in a court. Recently, the murder case of assistant police inspector Ashwini Bidre was solved by Navi Mumbai police primarily based on the CDR of Bidre and the accused police inspector Abhay Kurundkar that showed they were both at the Bhayander creek on the day she is believed to have been murdered. However, those accused of crimes too can use the CDR to prove that they were not at the scene of crime when it was committed. Ehtesham Siddiqui, one of the convicts in the 2007 Mumbai train blast was known to have filed several RTIs to get the copies of the CDR the investigators possessed.
Does CDR have evidentiary value in a court of law?
