Allahabad High Court criticizes Uttar Pradesh Police over unlawful detention and missing CCTV evidence

ALLAHABAD — The Allahabad High Court has strongly criticized the Uttar Pradesh Police over unlawful detention and the frequent non-availability of CCTV evidence, declaring that the state of civil liberties in Uttar Pradesh is shameful.

A division bench comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Achal Sachdev issued the remarks on November 3 while allowing a habeas corpus writ petition. The court ordered the immediate release of petitioner Afzal Ahmad from Bijnor, provided he is not required in any other pending matter, and directed the state government to pay him ₹20,000 in costs within seven days.

The bench expressed deep skepticism over recurring claims by law enforcement agencies regarding non-functional surveillance equipment during inquiries into alleged illegal detentions. Observing a broader pattern across multiple cases, the court noted that whenever the judiciary demands security camera recordings, authorities predominantly report that the footage is unavailable due to technical failures or weather incidents.

The case originated from a habeas corpus petition filed after Ahmad was named in a honey-trap case. According to the petitioner, Bijnor police took him into custody on September 5, 2026, but formally recorded his arrest two days later on September 7.

The petitioner’s daughter further alleged that personnel from the police and the Special Operations Group (SOG) in civilian clothes forcibly abducted her father from outside the Nagal police station around 2:30 PM on September 5. The family had visited the station in connection with the case registered against him.

In defense, the state informed the court that surveillance recordings from September 5 at 1:00 PM to September 7 at 10:00 AM were inaccessible. Officials relied upon a general diary entry attributing the outage to a thunderstorm and water seepage down a rain cable that allegedly caused the system to malfunction.

Rejecting the explanation, the court held that law enforcement cannot rely on equipment failure as an excuse in unlawful detention matters, asserting that the recordings were intentionally withheld to maliciously obscure facts.

The bench specifically faulted Nagal Station House Officer Annu Kumari for deliberately failing to produce the requested footage. The court directed that its strong displeasure be formally entered into her service records and instructed the state government to evaluate her continued assignment to her current posting.