TIRUNELVELI: CCTV recordings for March 10, 11, and 12 of Ambasamudram police station, where about 10 suspects including two juveniles were allegedly tortured by suspended ASP Balveer Singh and a few other police personnel, have gone missing due to technical error in the CCTV system.
According to sources, police personnel had told this to Cheranmahadevi sub-divisional magistrate MD Shabbir Alam when he visited the station to check the footage on Tuesday.
According to a Supreme Court order, if there is any fault in the CCTV camera, the Station House Officer (SHO) must report it to the collector who is the chairman of the district-level oversight committee (DLOC).
“If the CCTVs are not functioning in a police station, the SHO must inform the DLOC about the arrest/interrogations carried out in that station during that period and forward the records to the DLOC,” the order said. However, an official of the magisterial division of the Tirunelveli collectorate said no information about faulty CCTVs was received from the Ambasamudram SHO.
‘Collectorate was not informed about faulty CCTV camera’
Six suspects, including E Chellappa, were named in an FIR (49/2023) registered in the station on March 10. The complainant in the case was R Ganesan. Along with the suspects and the complainant, Ganesan’s three friends, including two juveniles, were allegedly brought to the Ambasamudram police station for an inquiry on that day.
The victims’ teeth were allegedly pulled out using pliers, their testicles were crushed and they were thrashed with police batons during the inquiry, some of the victims had later told reporters.
While five of the victims had filed their statements against Balveer Singh with the SDM after an inquiry was ordered to investigate the complaints, three others, including a juvenile, had shared the torture they suffered with reporters.
CCTV footage of Kallidaikurichi police station, where four other suspects were allegedly tortured by the officer, have been handed over to the SDM.
Meanwhile, N Silambarasan, deputy commissioner of police, South, Coimbatore city, has been posted as Tirunelveli superintendent of police on Wednesday after former SP P Saravanan was shifted to compulsory wait on Monday.
Six police personnel have been shifted to range vacancy reserve on Wednesday.
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