Observing that Uttar Pradesh Police “appear to have little regard for the fundamental rights and civil liberties of citizens” and that the existing situation was “shameful”, the Allahabad High Court castigated the police for giving excuses when asked to produce CCTV footage from a police station.

Hearing a habeas corpus petition alleging illegal detention in police custody of a man in Bijnor district, a division bench of Justices Atul Sreedharan and Achal Sachdev in its November 3 order observed, “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 U.P.…