"CCTVs deliberately kept non-functional:" Bombay High Court pulls up State police

The Bombay High Court directed the State government to take action against senior inspectors to ensure that the directions of the Supreme Court on installation of CCTVs at police stations are complied with in true letter and spirit [Somnath Laxman Giri and Anr. v. State of Maharashtra and Anr.]..A Bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and Milind N Jadhav observed that any statement being made by police officials that they are unable to provide CCTV footage due to the fact that CCTVs installed have become non-functional, will be a breach of the Supreme Court order. .“Pursuant to the directions of the Supreme Court, the CCTV systems are installed in the police stations, merely by way of compliance to the Order, but the same are intentionally either not maintained properly to serve the purpose it is meant to serve, or are deliberately kept non– functional, so that no evidence would be available in any matter, and no one is any the wiser as to what transpired at the police stations,” the Bench said.The Court directed the Chief Secretary (CS) of Maharashtra to ensure that the order of the Supreme Court is obeyed in its true letter and spirit..The Bench also directed the CS to take stern action against the Senior Inspectors of Police Stations / Station Officers in-charge of Police Stations for not reporting the CCTVs which are not functional, and for not taking immediate steps to rectify the fault on account of the same..The Court was hearing a petition that challenged an arbitrary notice issued by the Sinnar Police Station in Maharashtra.A notice had been issued under Section 149 (prevention of cognisable offence) of the Code of Criminal Procedure to maintain law and order following threats being issued to the complainants by the petitioners..Earlier this week, the Bench made a prima facie observation that the letter to the complainant was back-dated, but the concerned Superintendent of Police was “unable to offer an explanation to the Court’s findings”.“When we inquired from Police Inspector Dashrath Choudhary whether the CCTV footage of January 8, 2022 is available, like all other Station-house Officers, a stereo type answer was given that the CCTV cameras installed at Sinnar Police Station, Nashik, are not operating since the last two months,” the order recorded..The Court directed the Chief Secretary to submit a report setting out the data regarding functional as well as non-functional CCTVs at all the police stations in the State, and the duration for which the data recorded in CCTVs is stored, as well as the steps taken to keep a backup of the data..[Read Order]