Irrespective of any sort of ramifications or any reservations about the Supreme Court’s directive that all police stations and for that matter all investigating agencies must have in their places of working, inside, around and at vital places functioning CCTV cameras, so much that no part of any police station should remain ”uncovered”, the order of the apex court has got to be implemented. It is not proper or advisable in any respect to adopt either a passive approach or feigning ignorance about the order of the court as some police stations and for that matter, even the State or UT administrations may take the plea and not proceed further in strict implementation. In the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, for that matter, the same approach is at work and there is absolutely no headway made in implementation of the directives of the Supreme Court and as on date, the order in letter and spirit is, we are afraid, in non implementation mode for which no one other than the concerned authorities could throw some light. The role of the ”Oversight Committees” in this regard too has been the same and they have not acted in respect of the Terms of Reference even after several months of such mandate.
The question to bring in a proper transparency in the process of investigations in police stations, to keep a record both audio and video of unwarranted use of force against the accused of different crimes during the interrogation and therefore, as a natural corollary to pre-empt any chances of applying third degree methods of getting clues from the accused in respect of a crime committed, relates to the frequent complaints that people are abused at police stations and even threatened and insulted. There are instances, though the same cannot be generalised, that coercion takes place at police stations against the accused as well as the witnesses, to give even false statements. Even those who had been summoned to the police stations in helping in investigations are treated as criminals and made to wait for hours. Installation of CCTV cameras, therefore, would go a long way in containing and controlling such practices, if any, and at the same time ensuring that the integrity of investigations remained quite satisfactory and up to the mark.
Without prejudice to the apex court’s order, which leaves no scope for any ”ifs” and ”buts” in implementation, the fact is that our police force on the one hand has to maintain law and order, at the same time has to investigate, solve and crack many intricate crimes with obsolete infrastructure in most of the cases, encountering lot many difficulties and even at times, political interference. Mostly, they work under tremendous strain and restraint at times even while facing mob fury and in the process sustaining grievous injuries and even fatalities. They are even over burdened with lesser opportunities to take breaks and small intervals of rest . They have to deal with crimes of different nature — terror, espionage, narcotics and drug peddlers, bootleggers , cold blooded murders , frequent cases of rampaging public property etc – where in the absence of modern scientific ways of investigations , cracking conspiracies and crimes and reaching up to the source of the crime becomes not only difficult but even the quality of investigation suffers. Despite all these constraints, the Supreme Court’s directive has got to be implemented which should leave no scope for any conditions.
As on date, the directives, however, are not taken with the required seriousness by both the Government and the police force which looks typical especially when the order is to provide protection to the accused and the witnesses against uncalled for harsh methods and physical tortures. The fact of the matter, however, is that such CCTV cameras can go a long way in instilling confidence in the people and promote much required professionalism in the police force. Therefore, CCTV cameras shall play a pivotal role but functioning of the CCTV cameras should not be limited to one time installation but those units should function round the clock and even have night vision devices fitted or a mechanism where activities during night too should get recorded . That job to be ensured to be done and supervised properly, rests both on the station House Officers and the Oversight Committees. The main objective of the installation of the CCTV cameras, we reiterate, is to keep watch on the functioning of the Police at the Police Station levels .
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