This is a question I hear increasingly in Patna's courts as digital devices become central evidence in criminal investigations — particularly in FIRs involving financial fraud, matrimonial disputes, and land transactions where messages and call records are treated as key evidence. Let me give you an accurate, calibrated answer rather than a false comfort.

The Bihar Police and the Patna Police Commissionerate have the statutory power to seize property considered relevant to an investigation under Section 106 of the BNSS (formerly Section 102 CrPC). If the seizure is being conducted lawfully, physically obstructing it can itself constitute an offence — obstruction of a public servant in the discharge of their duty. So a flat physical refusal is not a safe or wise response. What you can and should do is insist on every procedural protection that the law provides. Demand that the seizure be properly documented in a seizure memo or panchnama that specifically lists your device, prepared in the presence of independent witnesses, with a copy given to you. Note that the BNSS now requires search and seizure operations to be audio-video recorded — if this is not being done, document the omission carefully, because it is a procedural flaw that can be raised later in your defence.

The more sensitive question is your password or device access. Your constitutional protection against self-incrimination under Article 20(3) applies here, and there is genuine, unsettled legal debate about whether you can be compelled to provide device access or decrypt data. Some courts have ordered access; the higher jurisprudence on the precise boundary remains developing. Do not volunteer your password reflexively, but also do not make a confrontational refusal — tell the officers you wish to consult your lawyer, and do so immediately. Having a criminal defence advocate from the Patna panel of Aapka Legal Advice reachable by phone during a search at your premises is genuinely protective and practically achievable with some advance preparation.

The bottom line: allow the lawful, documented seizure calmly, protect yourself on the procedural record at every step, and do not make informal statements or sign anything without reading it carefully.