CCTVs in all police stations by October : HC told

The Delhi High Court was today told that CCTV cameras would be installed in all the police stations in the national capital by October this year.

The submission was made by the police on an affidavit placed before a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and A K Chawla which had earlier told the agency to expedite installation of cameras in the police stations.

On March 13, the police had told the court that the exercise would take eight to nine more months as only a tender for procurement had been floated.

The court had not accepted the earlier submission and had directed the police to file a revised timeline for installing the cameras.

In the affidavit filed through criminal standing counsel Rajesh Mahajan, the police has told the bench that the cameras would be installed by October 2018.

The matter is expected to be heard in July as the bench did not assemble today.

The affidavit was filed in a PIL initiated by the court in 2012 after the infamous December 16, 2012 gangrape of a young woman in a moving bus. The woman later succumbed to injuries inflicted on her by the rapists.

It was also hearing another PIL by social activist Ajay Gautam alleging that there have been several deaths inside police stations in the city this year and the presence of functional CCTVs could act as a deterrent.

He has also claimed that even the CCTV cameras installed at a few police stations were obsolete as they did not have the recording feature and CCTVs were required in the police stations "to ensure transparency" in their functioning.