By Richa Banka
The Delhi Police on Monday told the Delhi high court that the CCTV cameras at the Jyoti Nagar police station, where a man was detained after being allegedly beaten up by police officers and forced to sing the national anthem in an injured condition during the north-east Delhi riots last year, were not working due to a “technical fault”.
In an affidavit filed before justice Yogesh Khanna, through advocate Amit Mahajan, the city police said the CCTV cameras were not working owing to technical reasons and no tampering was noticed by the technician who had come to repair them.
The police’s response comes on a plea by Kismatun, mother of Faizan, who had sought an SIT probe into her son’s death, who along with four other Muslim men, was seen in the video allegedly being assaulted by police officers and forced to sing the national anthem on February 24, 2020.
According to the plea by Faizan’s mother, through advocate Soutik Banerjee, the police had illegally detained her son and denied him critical health care as a result of which he succumbed to injuries on February 26. She said her son was mercilessly beaten by the police on February 24 which is evident from the video of the alleged incident that had gone viral back then.
On the last date, the court had asked the police to file an affidavit with info about CCTV cameras functioning in the relevant month along with relevant documents. It also asked the police to file an affidavit about preservation of relevant documents.
In response, the police affidavit stated that apart from the service report about the repair of cameras, a report has also been obtained from the office of station house officer, Jyoti Nagar police station, north-east district, confirming that on the date and time of the incident, the CCTV Cameras on the premises of the police station were not functional — the issue was got rectified only on March 4, 2020.
Earlier, the police had told the court that it had pinpointed a probable police officer who could have shot a viral video wherein police officers were seen assaulting the youth and forcing him to sing the national anthem in his injured state.
The police had also said they have not been able to identify the police officers in the video footage as they were wearing helmets and did not have name plates.
This story first appeared on hindustantimes.com