THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the wake of the alleged custodial death of S R Sreejith in Varappuzha, all police stations in the state have been asked to set up CCTV cameras inside lock-ups within two days. State police chief Loknath Behera has ordered district police chiefs to install CCTVs at lockups at 471 police stations in the state on a war footing.
At present, CCTV cameras have been installed at 110 police stations. He also instructed station house officers to connect the CCTVs with the main computer at the station. The visuals captured by camera should be transferred to DVDs from the hard disk on a weekly basis, he said. “All 471 police stations should be covered with one CCTV camera each, which can be connected to a computer monitor available at each police station.
The computer hard disk can also be used for recording. CCTV should be installed before April 16,” the DGP said in the order. The expense bill for the CCTVs can be submitted to the respective district police chief, Behera said in the order. Earlier this year, the State Human Rights Commission had ordered the police to install CCTV cameras at all police station lockups to prevent custodial torture.
The order came after social media highlighted the case of Sreejeev’s custodial death case, seeking justice for him. In 2015, the Supreme Court had also made CCTVs mandatory at all prisons, including police lockups. The apex court had suggested that all lock-ups in the country should have CCTV cameras installed as per the satisfaction of the police commissioner/DGP concerned.
471
The number of police stations where CCTVs are yet to be set up. At present, CCTV cameras have been installed at 110 stations