Sushant Singh Rajput’s death mystery: These digital forensics might help CBI crack the case

Investigation in Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case is proving to be another unsolved mystery. While several agencies are involved in the probe, the internet has its own possible theories.

The 420 along with cybercrime expert Amit Dubey tried to decode vital digital evidences related to the case that can assist in solving it or at least help clear the doubt in several people’s minds if it was a murder or suicide.

This is how CBI can crack Sushant Singh Rajput’s murder mystery using digital forensics.

Following are the key observations:

1: If you are using a smartphone, Google is always tracking your locations. It can provide details of how many people were around your location. The investigating agency can take these details from Google under section 91 of CrPC to get more clarity on the sequence of event. Interestingly, this data cannot be altered or deleted and is also admissible in the court.

2: Cell tower dump can throw crucial information. Death of Sushant took place during the lockdown when travel restrictions were still on. So cell tower dump can show how many people were in the area and at what time who all moved from one place to another.

If the actor’s death was a murder then it must be a pre-planned one. Usually, criminals do a recce of the area or track the movements of their target before they attack. Deep analysis of cell tower dump on who all came near to Sushan’t house and who all were present on the time of his death can also throw light on who all could be possibly involved.

3: Sushant’s mobile and laptop also plays an important role in solving a certain aspect of the investigation. Usually, these gadgets usually have  70-100 apps installed in it and through various permissions granted by the user, these apps capture certain data. A deep forensic analysis of these apps can show activity list of Sushant. What all applications he used especially just before his death can help in analysing his mental status.

Investigators can get some clarity by knowing how many times he opened and used WhatsApp, Facebook, gaming and music apps, different browsers, search history etc.

Apart from Google, Facebook also captures several data including behavioural analysis. Data captured through motion sensing and gyroscope by gaming console can also give an idea of mental status. Utility apps like voice recording and video editing may have some crucial information. Similarly, Alexa and smart TV data can throw light on what commands were given and what kind of content was browsed by him.

4: Modern forensic tools and other data recovery methods can help the investigators in fetching the data, chats, pictures, video and documents that have been deleted from the device. Using these tools deleted information can be retrieved.

5: WhatsApp is one of the most used apps and it can also reveal maximum information. For a fair understanding of people who were close to Sushant or who use to call or share messages can be analysed through his WhatsApp chats. Cops can find out what were his last chat, people in his frequent contact and those blocked by him.

6: Some interesting details can be fetched from the router of his Wi-Fi like who all had access to it. Routers record details of all the connected devices and if there is a role of an insider behind his death it can be verified by checking the time it was accessed. It can also show who were connected or were within the boundaries of his house when the incident took place. Wi-Fi gets automatically connected if the paired device is within its range.

7: Contact tracing app — Aarogya Setu by the government of India not only saves peoples life from the deadly coronavirus but can also help in solving the most sensational case of the country. If Sushant or his helpers’ phone had Aarogya Setu app installed in it, an analysis of it can give details of all the people in his proximity. The app works on Bluetooth and GPS connectivity and helps in identifying if a person was close to a Covid-19 positive patient.

8: Data related to his sleep, heart rate and other vital statistics can be fetched if Sushant was using any smartwatch or a fitness band.

— Following points have been sketched out by Delhi based cybercrime expert Amit Dubey.

Cyber crime expert Amit Dubey