Police censured for denying CCTV footage to RTI applicant in Karnataka

The Karnataka Information Commission has directed the Director General of Police and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) to ensure that applicants, under RTI, are not denied CCTV camera footage of police stations while imposing a penalty on Nangali police sub-inspector for not providing footage surrounding an alleged custodial death.

Muniraju, a native of Madanapalle, was picked up by Nangali police in a theft case. His family members said that the police took him on August 21 and he died in custody.

S Shangar of Kolar had sought footage of all CCTV cameras, installed as per a Supreme Court order, in the Nangali Police Station of Mulbagal Taluk under the Right to Information (RT) Act. If the cameras were not functioning, he had sought details of the same as per Section 6(1) and 7(1) of the RTI Act.

During the hearing of the second appeal, advocate Sudha Katwa, who represented Shangar, noted that the footage was related to the life of a person and should have been provided in 48 hours.

The Nangali sub-inspector and public information officer (PIO) G Pradeep Singh gave inconsistent replies on two occasions. On September 19, Singh said the footage couldn’t be provided as it was exempted under Section 8 of the RTI Act. However, on September 25, the sub-inspector said the CCTV cameras were under repair and gave a letter written to a company for servicing the cameras.

Information Commissioner K P Manjunath noted that the inconsistency in the sub-inspector’s reply pointed to deliberate denial of information and imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000.

The commissioner invoked Section 8(A) of RTI to issue directions to the DG&IGP Alok Mohan. “The Commission is seeing a rise in the number of cases against the police department, most of which pertain to the CCTV camera footage. During the hearing, the Commission has found that the PIOs were not providing the information in time,” he said, noting that information has been denied in several cases by citing repair work or exemption under the RTI Act.

The commissioner further noted that the Supreme Court has ordered installation of the CCTV cameras in all police stations and save the footage for one year, allowing the public to access it.

The order directed the DG&IGP to ensure the implementation of the Supreme Court order and submit a compliance report along with documents.