The Allahabad High Court has awarded compensation to four petitioners after finding that missing police-station CCTV footage and inadequate custody records supported their allegations of unlawful detention.
Justices Atul Sreedharan and Divesh Chandra Samant disposed of Mahendra Gaur’s habeas corpus petition on September 9. The police maintained that the petitioners had been called for questioning and released, but could not substantiate that account with reliable records.
The bench said that, when CCTV is unavailable, police must document a person’s arrival and departure. Without footage or supporting release documentation, an adverse evidentiary inference was justified in this case.
The State was directed to pay ₹20,000 each to three petitioners detained for ten days and ₹5,000 to the petitioner held for two days.
The court also ordered recovery from those responsible after an inquiry and recording of its displeasure in the officer’s service book.
It declined to direct action against the district police superintendent or circle officer on the material before it.