"CCTV Cameras Were Not Working": Delhi Police Tells High Court On Incident Of Detained Man Being Forced To Sing National Anthem During Delhi Riots

The Delhi Police today informed the Delhi High Court with respect to an incident of a detained man at a police station being allegedly forced to sing the national anthem during the 2020 Delhi riots, that the CCTV cameras of the police station were not working at the time of the incident due to "some technical fault".

The police has told the court this vide an affidavit filed through the Assistant Commissioner of Police on the directions of the Court, about the incident which allegedly took place at the Jyoti Nagar Police Station. Filed before Justice Yogesh Khanna, through Standing Counsel Amit Mahajan, the affidavit also states that the fault was noted in the daily diary register of the police station on the day itself and that the fault was repaired about a week later.

Stating on oath that no tampering was noticed at the time of repair with the camera, the affidavit places reliance on the corroboration of the fact by an engineer from the private company who resolved the fault. He claimed that no tampering was noticed by him at the time of repair.

The company's service report alongwith the engineer's statement are the primary corroboration of the police's claims.

The incident relates to a video which had gone viral in 2020 in which a man named Faizan could be seen being mercilessly beaten by the police allegedly while being forced to sing the national anthem. The deceased person's mother, Kismatun, moved a plea before the High Court seeking an SIT probe into her son's death, who along with four other Muslim men, was seen in the video allegedly.

Kismatun claims in her plea filed through Adv. Soutik Banerjee, that the police had illegally detained her son and denied him critical health care as a result of which he succumbed to injuries on Feb 26.

Earlier, the court had directed the police to file an affidavit with information about the CCTV cameras' functioning in the relevant month and about the preservation of relevant documents.

The police have also informed the Court that the relevant general diary entries, the duty roster of the police stations of Jyoti Nagar and Bhajanpura, and the arrest memos have been preserved as directed.

Earlier, the police have told the court that they had failed to establish the identity of the officers in the video footage as they were wearing helmets and did not have name plates.