Custodial Death in Gachibowli PS: HC Calls for Day's CCTV Footage

HYDERABAD: The division bench of the Telangana High Court, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice T. Vinod Kumar, directed Hyderabad police to produce the  footage of CCTV cameras  the in Gachibowli police station from July 7, when Nitish Kumar, a native of Bihar working as a security guard in a construction company in Nanakramguda, succumbed to alleged police brutality, reported as a custodial death.

The court took up the issue as suo motu petition based on a letter by advocate Rapolu Bhaskar about the incident. He also annexed newspaper reports with the letter. On an earlier hearing, the court had directed the government to submit its contention.

On Thursday, the government counsel submitted that Nitish Kumar died due to cardiac arrest and this was supported by a medical report. The bench directed the police to produce the CCTV footage before it.

Justice Vinod Kumar wanted to know if the government had filed its report before the Supreme Court on the subject ‘Installation of CCTV cameras in all the police stations in Telangana state.”

It may be recalled that the apex court, while dealing with an SLP had directed the state government to file a report on the installation of CCTV cameras in all police stations. Justice Vinod Kumar directed the government to share a copy of that report, if it had furnished it to the apex court.

Chief Justice Alok Aradhe observed that the Supreme Court in ‘Shahi Mohammed vs. State of Himachal Pradesh’ and in another judgment emphasized that all the states should have the  provision in order to ensure transparency in investigation.

Nitish Kumar restrained the workers of the construction company from going out after 11pm as per the rules of the company. This led to a scuffle between him and some workers, based on which the Gachibowli police took him to the police station for ‘interrogation’.