Justice hijacked: When evidence is manipulated

Consider those suspenseful moments in courtroom dramas or crime thriller movies where the bad guy is not only committing a crime but is also making a concerted effort to blame someone else or hide their identity. They remain behind and alter the crime scene, fabricate evidence, or even bribe someone in the lab to falsify reports, rather than fleeing. You feel powerless and enraged as you see all of this, since the true narrative is being purposefully kept concealed. Evidence manipulation, which turns lies into truth and truth into lies, is precisely how justice is abused.

The Bedrock of Justice: Evidence

Evidence is crucial in any judicial case. Documents, testimonials, forensic results, and digital records are examples of physical evidence that assist courts in reconstructing events and establishing the truth. Consider it like building a house: without sturdy, undamaged components, the entire construction is undermined, and the evidence forms the bricks and the mortar. The validity and dependability of the evidence offered determine the outcome of any case, from a straightforward contract disagreement to a complicated criminal prosecution. Therefore, stringent guidelines control the gathering, storage, and presentation of evidence in court. Its integrity is guaranteed by the chain of custody, sworn testimonies, and expert views.

The Alarming Reality: Manipulation

However, what happens when this crucial foundation is deliberately undermined? When is evidence “hijacked”? This is not just about sloppy police work or an honest mistake. Malicious intent is when someone or some organization deliberately tampers with, destroys, or fabricates evidence to influence a court decision.

Consider the following scary scenarios:

• Fabricated Documents: Forged signatures on a will, backdated contracts, or doctored financial documents to gain an unfair advantage in legal litigation.
• Tampered Physical Evidence: Physical evidence that has been tampered with includes changing forensic samples, planting a weapon, or swapping out fingerprints at a crime scene in order to frame someone or deflect suspicion.
• Manipulated digital evidence: This includes deleting important emails, changing chat logs, or fabricating social media posts to implicate an innocent person. This is a frightening new area for evidence manipulation in an increasingly digital society.
• Coerced or Perjured Testimony: Perjured or coerced This refers to someone purposefully making false statements under oath or witnesses who are under duress to lie. False testimony directly manipulates the information offered to the court, even if it is not “evidence” in the traditional sense.

Such acts may be performed for a variety of reasons, such as to avoid penalties, falsely accuse someone, settle a financial issue, or even to even. The outcome is the same regardless of the motivation: justice is denied, and the truth is disguised.

The Ripple Effect: Beyond the Courtroom

Naturally, the people directly involved in the case are the ones who are immediately impacted by the altered evidence. An innocent person’s life can be permanently destroyed if they are wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. If justice is denied, victims may experience a profound sense of betrayal and powerlessness.

However, the damage extends far beyond the courtroom. When the public loses faith in the integrity of the evidence presented in court, they begin to lose faith in the entire judicial system. This erosion of trust can have devastating societal consequences. Like:

• Reduced Public Confidence: People will stop seeing the legal system as an objective and fair arbiter if they think that justice can be purchased, perverted, or avoided through manipulation.
• Increased Crime: Criminals may feel more confident committing more crimes if they think that altering evidence will allow them to avoid punishment.
• Social Unrest: In severe situations, public ire and societal instability may result from a pervasive belief in a corrupt legal system.
• Undermining the Rule of Law: The rule of law is predicated on the idea that all people are created equal and that the judicial system is fair and impartial. This principle is directly challenged by evidence manipulation.

Safeguards and the Ongoing Fight

• New Laws Strengthening Safeguards:
  • The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) directly criminalizes acts like fabricating false evidence, giving false evidence (perjury), and destroying evidence to screen offenders, with clear punishments.
  • The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (BSA) significantly modernizes the admissibility of digital evidence by explicitly making electronic records admissible and detailing stringent authentication requirements, including a necessary certificate, to counter digital manipulation.
  • Procedurally, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) enhances evidence integrity by:
    • Mandating forensic investigation for serious offenses, ensuring scientific collection and videography of crime scenes.
    • Facilitating electronic proceedings.
    • Streamlining investigation through the collection of specimen samples to minimize tampering.

• Existing Judicial Safeguards:
  • Judges, attorneys, and investigators are educated to examine evidence carefully.
  • Forensic science is essential for verifying or refuting evidence.
  • Cross-examination in court remains one of the most effective ways to reveal contradictions and falsehoods in testimony.

Ongoing, meanwhile, is the battle against the manipulation of evidence. As technology develops, so do tampering techniques. There is a never-ending competition between those who want to undermine justice and those who want to protect it.

Conclusion

“Justice Hijacked” by falsified evidence is not merely a theoretical idea; it is a perilous reality that jeopardizes the fundamental basis of our society. This serves as a reminder that achieving justice is a continuous process that calls for integrity, alertness, and unshakable dedication to the truth. As the system’s future stewards, it is our responsibility to uphold the law’s integrity and ensure that evidence is always a beacon of truth rather than a means of deception. Let us work toward a system in which the scales of justice are genuinely balanced, steered by real facts, and never tilted by false information.

[i]

[i]Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, No. 45, Acts of Parliament, 2023 (India).

Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, No. 47, Acts of Parliament, 2023 (India).

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, No. 46, Acts of Parliament, 2023 (India).

Pruthvi Ramkanta Hegde, All about digital evidence, iPleaders (Feb. 23, 2024),

https://blog.ipleaders.in/all-about-digital-evidence/.

Indian Kanoon, manipulation of evidence, https://indiankanoon.org/search/?formInput=manipulation%20of%20evidence&pagenum=3

Dimpal Goyal & Anamika Yadav, Tampering of Evidence Under Indian Evidence Act, 1872: Legal Provisions and Implications, 10 Universal Research. Reps. 568 (2023).

https://urr.shodhsagar.com/index.php/j/article/view/1477