Bhubaneswar: In a significant development in Archana Nag’s honey-trap racket case in Odisha, the State forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) has handed over the analysis report of the electronic gadgets seized from the lady blackmailer.
The Commissionerate Police had sent several electronic gadgets which were seized during investigation into Archana’s sex and extortion racket to the SFSL for forensic analysis.
The information contained in forensic report of the electronic gadgets is likely to throw light on alleged links of Archana with high-profile people including influential politicians and businessmen.
According to reports, the SFSL has completed the analysis of four mobile phones, two laptops, tab and pen drive which had been sent by the police. The SFSL also handed over report on hard disc data.
While one copy of the report was submitted to the court, another was handed over at Khandagiri police station in Bhubaneswar. The SFSL also handed over the data contained in the hard disc.
Sources said the chats and data which had been deleted from the mobile phones and laptops were successfully retrieved by the SFSL experts and handed over to the court and police.
The forensic report of the Archana’s electronic gadgets will be of immense help to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing into the financial transactions in the sextortion racket.
The ED has already received two diaries of Archana from the Khandagiri Police after the court’s approval besides collecting some other devices used by the lady blackmailer.
It may be noted that Archana was sent to jail on Monday as the court of Additional District Judge (ADJ) III in Bhubaneswar rejected the petition of ED for her remand for two more days.
After Archana’s second remand ended on Sunday, the ED had moved the court for her remand for two more days on the ground that she was not cooperating during the investigation nor giving satisfactory answers during the interrogation.
The agency had taken Archana on 6-day remand for second time after it reportedly failed to elicit any credible information about her suspicious money transactions in the first phase of interrogation.
While Archana was arrested by police on October 6, her husband Jagabandhu Chand was arrested on October 21.
Archana and Jagabandhu allegedly amassed over Rs 30 crore between 2018 and 2022 by blackmailing and threatening some politicians and rich people. The agency has already traced Rs 2.5 crore deposits in the bank accounts of the couple between 2017 and 2022.
