The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged rape case against Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkootathil has so far exercised shrewd legal awareness to tap varied options offered by the electronic video linkage rules and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). The police had suffered a major setback in the second case when the court granted Rahul pre-arrest bail citing delay in filing the complaint and absence of any prima facie material linking the accused to the offence.

In the third case as well, the same factors were a concern. The alleged rape incident happened in April 2024, the complaint was filed from abroad. At the outset, the police executed a midnight swoop in utmost secrecy to arrest Rahul, and then began the next crucial step to counter the bail plea. The police recorded the First Information Statement (FIS) of the survivor, invoking a provision in the BNSS that allows the statement to be recorded through any audio-visual electronic means, including a mobile phone. Her statement was recorded on January 8, 2026, via Zoom.

The defence came up with an argument that the survivor hadn't signed the FIS in front of any authority, as she was in Canada. The counsel of Rahul raised this contention relying on the provision which notes that the person giving information through electronic communication shall sign the statement within 3 days from the date of giving such statement. Sources said that they had perused the provisions and that the condition of signature was not a definitive clause, which was upheld in the court.

When this argument regarding the signature came up during the bail hearing, Thiruvalla Judicial First Class Magistrate Arundhathi Dileep concluded that the implications of not signing the statement within three days were not provided anywhere in the BNSS. This conclusion matched what the investigating officials had anticipated.

M Salahudeen, Public Prosecutor, told Onmanorama that the condition of signature is not limited in its meaning. "Any digital signature/electronic signature shall have same legal standing as that of a handwritten signature as per the IT act. The Supreme Court had also ruled that criminal procedure shall be interpreted in tune with technological advancement," said Salahudeen.

Even before the provisions of BNSS came into force, there had been instances of witness examination via video. A fast-track court in Thiruvananthapuram had transferred proceedings to the KELTRON office to examine two witnesses in Dubai during the trial of the murder of DYFI activist Sakeer. He was killed in 1995 and the convicts were sentenced in 2003.

V Ajakumar, the public prosecutor in the actress assault case recounted another instance when he made use of video conferencing to examine two eye-witnesses in a murder case at Kunnukuzhi in Thiruvananthapuram. "They saw the victim being hacked to death and they had moved to Canada. A special permission was sought to examine them via video," he said. According to Ajakumar, the remote location of a survivor is no more a deterrent in the conduct of the case and the investigation.

"Under the electronic video linkage rules for courts, a remote point co-ordinator can be appointed. If it is needed in overseas countries, an official of an Indian consulate/Indian embassy/High commission can be deputed as the co-ordinator," Ajakumar said. The court shall give sufficient notice in advance and may transmit non-editable digital scanned copies to the official electronic mail account of the co-ordinator of the remote point concerned.

The present rules allow the SIT to record the statement of a survivor from remote locations via electronic mode even without obtaining an order from the court concerned, sources said. "This will also embolden other survivors to cooperate with the probe. In many cases, they refrain from pursuing the complaint dreading legal tangles," an official said.

T A Shaji, Director General of Prosecution, told Onmanorama that such cases involving survivors in foreign countries would require exploration of wider scope of legal provisions which are now available in the BNSS.

Bureau of Police Research & Development under the Ministry of Home Affairs has also laid down the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in handling rape cases. It says that in appropriate cases where the survivor is from outside the country / abroad, the investigation officer, with the previous permission of his/her immediate superior officer, can examine such a witness through video conferencing and other electronic means.