Chennai: The High Court has ordered the Tamil Nadu government to respond to the question, “Why has adequate funding not been allocated for upgrading the capacity to securely preserve CCTV footage at the Anti-Corruption Department police stations for up to 18 months?”
Sakthivel from Salem had filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Department against Salem Civil Supplies Investigation Department Inspector Ramarajan and Assistant Inspectors Saravanan Kumar and Ramakrishnan, alleging that they had demanded a bribe of Rs. 15,000 from him to allow the smuggling of ration rice. Based on this, the Anti-Corruption Department police have registered a case and are investigating.
In this situation, to bring out the truth of this case, accused Assistant Inspector Saravanan Kumar had filed a petition in the Chennai High Court seeking to preserve the mobile phone records of the complainant Sakthivel and his mother, as well as the CCTV footage at the Salem Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption office.
During the hearing of this case, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Department stated that the surveillance camera footage at the Salem office would be preserved for only 15 days.
Thereafter, Justice V. Lakshmi Narayanan, who heard the case, had last week directed the Tamil Nadu DGP to file a report on how long CCTV recordings are being preserved in police stations across Tamil Nadu, in view of the Supreme Court’s order that surveillance camera footage must be preserved for at least 18 months.
In this situation, the case came up for hearing again yesterday. At that time, in the report filed on behalf of the Tamil Nadu DGP, it was stated that, “Although the Supreme Court ordered in 2021 that surveillance cameras should be installed in all police stations, the government order in this regard was issued in Tamil Nadu only after a delay of two years.
As a result, the installation of surveillance cameras at all police stations is being carried out gradually. Likewise, no funds have been allocated for upgrading the capacity to securely preserve camera recordings for 18 months. It was stated that once funds are allocated, the necessary steps will be taken.”
Justice V. Lakshmi Narayanan, who recorded the report, has adjourned the hearing to Sept. 17 and ordered the Tamil Nadu Human Resources Management Department Secretary to respond to why funds for capacity building were not allocated so that the CCTV recordings installed in anti-corruption department offices across Tamil Nadu could be securely preserved for 18 months.
