BMW accident: No legal provision allows sharing CCTV footage with accused, says court

New Delhi, Sep 18 (PTI) A Delhi court on Thursday said there was no legal provision allowing sharing of CCTV footage with the accused in a criminal case.

Judicial magistrate Ankit Garg was hearing a plea filed for preservation of CCTV footage by Gaganpreet Kaur, 38, who was allegedly behind the wheel of the BMW that rammed into the two-wheeler of a senior finance ministry official, leaving him dead and his wife with grievous injuries in Dhaula Kuan area of the capital.

Advocate Gagan Bhatnagar, who appeared for Kaur, cited some portion of the FIR about the sequence of the events and argued that the entire case rested on the CCTV footage.

Bhatnagar said the footage of Dhaula Kuan metro pillars 65 and 67 needed to be examined, which could then reveal “something else”.

The magistrate, however, said there was no legal provision or law under which the footage could be provided to the accused.

“I am not saying give it to me but to preserve it and submit in the court,” Kaur’s counsel responded.

He alleged the investigating officer (IO) provided an “evasive reply” on the plea, saying notice was given to the person concerned for providing the footage to Delhi Police.

Bhatnagar claimed that senior police officials had given statements of having watched the footage, which was contrary to the IOs reply.

The court directed the IO to appear on September 19, besides issuing a notice to the station house officer of Dhaula Kuan police station.

The hearing would continue on September 19.

Kaur was remanded to judicial custody till September 27 and her bail plea is set to come up on September 20.

Deputy Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Navjot Singh (52), who lived in Hari Nagar, succumbed to injuries on Ring Road near the Delhi Cantonment Metro station on the afternoon of September 14.

Singh along with his wife was returning home after visiting the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara.

A case was registered under Sections 281 (rash driving), 125B (endangering life or personal safety of others), 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the BNS. PTI MNR MNR AMK AMK