34. Indian Cyber Law and Cyber Crime Awareness
34.2 New Criminal Laws and Electronic Evidence
From 1 July 2024, three new laws replaced the old colonial-era criminal laws:
| Old law | New law |
|---|---|
| Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 | Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 |
| Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973 | Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 |
| Indian Evidence Act, 1872 | Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), 2023 |
Cyber frauds are usually charged under the IT Act together with BNS sections for cheating, extortion, forgery and similar offences. Cases registered before 1 July 2024 continue under the old laws.
Electronic evidence. Emails, logs, screenshots and chats can be evidence in court, but they need a proper certificate of authenticity. Earlier this was section 65B of the Evidence Act; under the BSA the matching provision is section 63. This is why forensics (Chapter 28) insists on hashing evidence, keeping a chain of custody and never working on the original disk.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip
SOC kiwa forensics madhe kaam kartana "screenshot ghetla, zala evidence" asa vichar karu naka. Original log file, tyacha hash, kuni, kadhi, kasa ghetla – he sagle nondavle tarach court madhe tikte. Chain of custody todli tar changla puravaa pan vyartha jato.
Practice task
For the Shivneri Traders incident from Chapter 31, list the electronic evidence you would collect (logs, snapshots, emails), how you would hash and store each item, and who would sign the chain-of-custody form.