Delhi High Court has sought response from Delhi Police, Delhi Government and Home Ministry on a petition filed regarding installation of CCTV cameras in police stations. The court has directed the officials to present their side within three weeks. This petition has been filed by a person named Ajay.
Ajay says that he was called to the Crime Branch office of Delhi for questioning in a drugs case, from where he was arrested. Police allege that about three kilos of Alprazolam was recovered from his shop.
The petitioner cited the old decision of the Supreme Court
Petitioner Ajay claims that there were no CCTV cameras installed in the Anti-Narcotics Task Force Crime Branch office where he was arrested. After his arrest, he had demanded to keep the CCTV footage of the place safe and make it available, but the police officials replied that there was no CCTV camera installed in that office. After this, Ajay approached the High Court and said that this matter is serious, because the Supreme Court had given clear instructions that it is mandatory to install CCTV cameras in all police stations and places related to interrogation.
Appellant demanded from the court
According to this decision of the Supreme Court, if at any time the CCTV cameras are not working or are not installed, then the Station House Officer has to give the information about the arrest and interrogation done during that time to the district level monitoring committee. The petitioner alleges that neither CCTV cameras were installed there nor any report of his arrest was sent to the district level monitoring committee.
Therefore, Ajay has demanded from the court that his arrest and custodial interrogation be declared illegal and the entire matter should be investigated. Delhi High Court will hear the case on April 30.
