PRAYAGRAJ: Observing that Uttar Pradesh Police has little regard for the fundamental rights and civil liberties of citizens, the Allahabad high court recently allowed a habeas corpus writ petition and ordered the release of a Bijnor resident.A bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Achal Sachdev in its Nov 3 order strongly criticized the UP police over unlawful detention and repeated instances of non-availability of CCTV footage directing that petitioner Aausad Ahmad be set at liberty forthwith, if he is not wanted in any other case. The court further directed the state to pay Rs 20,000 as costs to him within seven days.“The situation that exists in the state of Uttar Pradesh relating to the civil liberty is shameful, to say the least. The police appear to have little regard for the fundamental rights and civil liberties of citizens, and the infringement of these rights seems to have become a matter of routine for the UP Police,” the bench said while passing the order.In the petition, Ahmad’s daughter claimed that the Bijnor police took him into custody on Sept 5, 2026, but his formal arrest was shown only on Sept 7, 2026. She has alleged that police personnel and SOG officials in civil dress forcibly took away her father from outside the police station – Nangal of Bijnor, where both of them had gone after being called by the police in connection with a case lodged against Ahmad alleging a honey trap.According to the petition, they reached the police station at around 2:30 PM on Sept 5, 2026. While they were in their vehicle and had contacted the SHO, a car entered the premises near the police station gate. Four persons allegedly came out of the vehicle, surrounded their car, and forcibly took Ahmad away.To verify the allegations, the High Court earlier directed the police to produce CCTV recordings from the police station from Sept 5, 2026, at 1 PM, until Sept 7, 2026, at 10 AM.However, when the matter was taken up, the state informed the court that the CCTV footage for the said period was not available. The state relied on a general diary entry dated Sept 5, 2026, which stated that a thunderstorm occurred and water trickled down the rain cable into the CCTV system, causing it to malfunction and fail.Taking a serious note of it, the court observed, “In case after case whenever CCTV footage are called for by this court, in large majority of the cases, it is the same report which comes stating that CCTV footage is not available on account of one reason or other.”The court further clarified that the excuse of a CCTV malfunctioning is not available to the police in a case of unlawful detention. The court added that any such explanation would be sufficient for it to accept the petitioner’s contention that the corpus had been unlawfully detained and that the CCTV footage was deliberately withheld to obfuscate the truth maliciously.The court also took note of the role of Nangal’s SHO Anoo Kumari, observing that she had deliberately not provided the CCTV footage relevant to deciding the case. Recording its displeasure against the SHO, the court directed that the same be entered into her service records. It further said that the state should consider her further continuation on the present post.