CCTV footage ordered to be preserved by magistrate court found deleted, DCP court orders probe

New Delhi [India], August 25 (ANI): A Delhi magistrate court ordered the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) to inquire into a matter and fix the responsibility of police officials involved in deleting the CCTV footage of Paschim Vihar West police station's entry and exit gates, which was ordered to be preserved.
The Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Sharma of Tis Hazari Court Delhi on August 24, 2022, noted that "it is brought to the notice of this court that the video footage to be preserved order dated 26.06.2020, which was thereafter seized and preserved in a hard disk and compliance report was filed by SI Pradeep Kumar PS Paschim Vihar West dated July 1, 2021, witnessed by Ct. Ravi and technical producer Satyam, Project Engineer and kept in the malkhana (storeroom) of PS Paschim Vihar West, has been found empty and no data was stored in the hard disk 2TB.
Let this matter be brought to the notice of the DCP concerned as to how despite directions of this court to preserve the CCTV footage of PS Paschim Vihar West, the same was not properly preserved and fix the responsibility of the officers involved due to whose lapse the same has occurred for 08.09.2022, said the court order.
The application was moved by advocate Ravi Drall for the preservation of CCTV footage of the police station and the same was allowed and the DVR of CCTV footage was preserved in Malkhana of Police station. Now when the charge sheet was submitted, the IO of the case was ordered to give a copy of CCTV footage to advocate Ravi Drall but when counsel went to police station Paschim Vihar West he was informed that the DVR was empty which was in Malkhana of the police station.
The matter pertains to a case where a person was allegedly illegally detained in a police station in the noon hours of 20 June 2020 and later implicated in a false FIR of Arms Act case, said the defence lawyer. In this case, the CDR of 5 police officials had been already preserved who were allegedly involved in implicating the accused in an arms case. (ANI)