Taking serious note of CCTV cameras remaining non-functional for about 10 days at Gosainganj police station, additional chief judicial magistrate (IV) Sumit Chaudhary has sent a copy of his order to the Lucknow commissioner of police (CP) and directed him to take necessary action with regard to negligence of the station house officer (SHO) and the District Level Oversight Committee (DLOC) and inform the court within one month.
With this, the court of the additional CJM rejected the bail plea of Chanchal Yadav alias Lala, a robbery accused, in an order passed on Thursday.
According to the prosecution, Rahul Kumar, the complainant, lodged a report in connection with the robbery of ₹4,34,330 on July 6. After investigation, police arrested Chanchal Yadav alias Lala with ₹8,500 of the allegedly looted money.
While filing the bail application before the court, the defence counsel said the accused was arrested from his house, while police claimed he was arrested from Kisan Path. On the defence’s demand, the court summoned CCTV footage of the police station from August 13 to 14. The SHO said the cameras were faulty since August 13. According to the ACP Gosainganj’s report, letters were shown to have been sent to the nodal officer, CCTNS, on August 17 and 22. The nodal officer said a report was received on August 24. The court found that cameras remained shut without backup from August 13 to 22.
In its order, the court cited the Supreme Court judgment in Paramveer Saini vs Baljit Singh and said the responsibility of operation, maintenance of cameras and immediate intimation of fault to DLOC lies with the SHO.
{{/usCountry}}In its order, the court cited the Supreme Court judgment in Paramveer Saini vs Baljit Singh and said the responsibility of operation, maintenance of cameras and immediate intimation of fault to DLOC lies with the SHO.
{{/usCountry}}Observing that such a situation in a police station of the state capital is contrary to high court directions, the court ordered that a copy of its order be sent to the police commissioner for action.
In February, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court directed the UP chief secretary to look into non-functional CCTV cameras installed in police stations across the state and fix responsibility.
A bench of Justice Abdul Moin and Justice Babita Rani passed the order on February 4 on a writ petition filed by Shyam Sundar Agrahari.
In the case in question, the petitioner’s lawyer Shivendra Shivam Singh Rathore submitted that the petitioner, a 56-year-old person with a disability, had been booked in a false case by the Motigarpur police of Sultanpur district. The district court granted the petitioner anticipatory bail.
Later, police picked him up from his house on the night of September 6, 2025, took him to the police station and after assaulting him grievously in lock-up, booked him in yet another false case, the counsel alleged. The petitioner sought the quashing of the case after ascertaining the truth from the CCTV footage.
When the bench summoned SP Kunwar Anupam Singh, he filed a personal affidavit expressing inability to produce footage as CCTV cameras of Motigarpur police station had been non-functional since June 1, 2025.
During the course of the hearing, the bench found the Supreme Court had already issued a directive that CCTV footage of police stations must be preserved for one-and-a-half years and in any case for at least six months, but the DGP had issued a circular on June 20, 2025 fixing the time for preserving footage at two-and-a-half months only.
The bench noted that even the DGP’s directions were not complied with as CCTV cameras stood non-functional from June 1 till September 9, 2025 when the court took notice of the issue.