‘Institutional failures’: HC asks CBI to find missing video in 17-yr-old custodial death case

Prayagraj: Calling the case a reflection of “institutional failures”, the Allahabad High Court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to recover missing video evidence linked to the alleged custodial death of a disabled man in Mainpuri 17 years ago.

The court, in its order dated May 18, directed the CBI’s anti-corruption branch in Ghaziabad to secure the missing recordings within 60 days and present them before the court on Aug 10, the next date of hearing.

A bench comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Siddharth Nandan passed the order in a PIL filed in the 2009 case of custodial death of Nahar Singh, who died inside the lockup of Dannahar police station in Mainpuri.

The court said, “The case discloses institutional failures. The PIL was filed in 2010 and is still pending after 16 years. Videography and photographs of the scene of the incident and post-mortem have not been made available to this court to enable it to proceed further.”

Singh, who suffered from 40% physical disability, was found hanging in the urinal section of the police lockup on
May 9, 2009. Police claimed he committed suicide. However, the court questioned the plausibility of the official version, noting that
a police lockup remains under constant surveillance and is not an isolated space.

The bench observed that despite the case being pending since 2010, critical evidence, including videography and photographs of the scene of occurrence and postmortem report, had not been produced before the court.

The PIL was filed by the Association for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives (AALI), an organisation working for the rights of women and marginalised communities.

Advocate Ankur Sharma, appearing for the petitioner, highlighted the issue of rising custodial death cases in the state.