A Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court has set aside the arrest of Raghvendra Dubey in a sand-mining dispute, holding that Chitrakoot police manipulated the time of his arrest and deliberately shut off or deleted three station CCTV feeds, that the grounds of arrest were inadequate, and that police prima facie acted as recovery agents for the complainant, awarding Rs 10,000 compensation and issuing CCTV directions.
The Allahabad High Court has held that police cannot detain an innocent family member to pressure an accused into surrendering, awarding Rs 40,000 compensation to Arvind Kumar Yadav for four days of unlawful custody at Police Station George Town, Prayagraj, to be recovered from the salaries of the personnel responsible.
A Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court has awarded Rs 20,000 each to three petitioners held for ten days, and Rs 5,000 to a fourth held for two days, at Gauri Bazar police station in Deoria, holding SHO Dr. Mahendra Kumar responsible, drawing an adverse inference from missing CCTV footage, and directing recovery from the salary of those responsible and a note in his service book.
The Supreme Court strongly criticised the Centre and several States for not complying with its 2020 order mandating CCTV installation in all police stations, calling custodial deaths a serious “blot on the system”. The Court has granted three weeks for compliance, failing which senior officials will have to personally explain the delay.