This question has become increasingly common as digital devices have become central to criminal investigations — particularly in Kanpur cases involving fraud, financial offences, matrimonial disputes, and sedition-adjacent matters where messaging records are considered key evidence. Let me give you an honest, calibrated answer.

The police have the statutory power to seize property they consider relevant to an investigation — this flows from Section 106 of the BNSS (formerly Section 102 CrPC) — and if the seizure is being conducted lawfully, physically obstructing it can itself constitute an offence under the BNS. So a flat physical refusal is rarely wise. However, "lawful" seizure carries meaningful procedural requirements, and you are entitled to insist on every one of them. The seizure must be documented in a proper seizure memo or panchnama, listing your device specifically, prepared in the presence of independent witnesses, and a copy must be given to you. Crucially, the BNSS now mandates audio-video electronic recording of search-and-seizure operations — if this is not being done, note the omission carefully, as it is a procedural flaw you can use later.

The more sensitive question is your password. Your constitutional protection against self-incrimination under Article 20(3) applies here, and there is genuine legal uncertainty — which I will not paper over — about whether you can be compelled to disclose a device password or decrypt data. Some courts have issued directions for access; the higher jurisprudence on the precise boundaries between self-incrimination and technical assistance remains unsettled. Given this uncertainty, do not volunteer your password reflexively and do not refuse categorically in a way that creates a confrontation — the correct response is to say you wish to consult your lawyer first and to do exactly that, immediately. Having a Kanpur criminal lawyer reachable by phone during the course of a seizure at your premises is genuinely protective and practically possible with some advance preparation.

The broader strategic point is this: allow the lawful, documented seizure rather than resisting it, but protect yourself on the record at every step. Demand the panchnama, verify the list, do not sign anything you have not read, do not make informal statements, and do not produce anything beyond what the written seizure memo specifies. Every procedural irregularity in how your device is seized or examined is a vulnerability in the prosecution's evidence that your counsel can raise — making the admission of the device's contents contested at trial. In digital-evidence-heavy cases in Kanpur, the chain of custody from seizure to court is often where prosecutions are weakest, and that begins with how the device is taken.