Cell Phone: A Vital Clue

Increasing use of cell phone as a medium of human interaction is playing a vital role in solving riddles of crime as well. A young girl went missing from her home late in the evening in the month of August, 2008 when her enraged relatives and villagers physically assaulted and chased her fiancée who often frequented her home. Two years later, her mother lodged a complaint against the relatives and the villagers alleging that after abduction her daughter was either sold or killed as she had failed to trace her. On investigation, a rusted cell phone with partial visible IMEI number, clothes, bangles, human skeleton etc. recovered from abandoned well in the month of May, 2011 were examined in the lab. All hopes pinned on identity of cell phone, for only linking evidence to fix the scene of occurrence supported by call detail record (CDR) and to dispel doubts about mode of sudden disappearance or death as DNA technology did not help in establishing identity of the deceased. The conventional scientific methods were used without success and international mobile equipment identification number of the cell phone could be generated by using statistical analysis followed by online verification. 





References:
<p>[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone.
[2] Thilagaraj R. and Kala N. An approach to finalizing the technical
investigation of cyber crime within law enforcement, The Indian police
Journal, vol. LX, Jan-March 2013 no.1, pp. 90-103.
[3] Carlton G.H. and Worthley R., An evaluation of agreement & conflict
among computer forensic experts, Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii
International Conference on system Science. (2009).
[4] AIR 2005SC3820, 2005 CriLJ3950, 122 (2005) DLT194 (SC), (2005)
11SCC600, (2005) Suppl (3) SCR79.
[5] Crl. A. No. 41/2008 (Decided on March 18, 2009).
[6] Crl. A. No. 561/2008 (Decided on March 16, 2009).
[7] http://www.asianage.com/delhi/man-gets-20-yr-jail-killing-ddagardener-
867 (Decided in February 2009).
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_peterson.
[9] http://en.weikipedia.org/wiki/Luhn_algorithm.
[10] http://expressbuzz.com/finance/mobile-phone-import-not-chinaspecific/
172492.html.</p>