In an unusual case of a litigant accusing the police of having submitted fabricated closed circuit television (CCTV) footage before the court to prove his presence in a police station on a particular day, the Madras High Court has called for the Call Detail Records (CDR) along with the tower locations of the mobile phone used by the litigant on that day.
Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira passed the orders on a contempt of court petition filed by Southern India Cinematographer’s Association general secretary M. Ilavarasu against the Inspector of Soundarapandiyanar Angadi Police Station at T. Nagar in Chennai. The judge ordered that the CDR as well as tower location details must be submitted on January 29.
The issue relates to a funds misappropriation complaint lodged by the association in 2018 against its former office-bearers. Since there was no progress, it had filed a petition in the High Court in 2022 seeking a direction to the Central Crime Branch police to complete the investigation at the earliest and file a final report within a time to be stipulated by the court .
When the petition was taken up for hearing on March 3, 2022, an Additional Public Prosecutor informed the court that the complaint had been transferred from the CCB to the Pondy Bazaar Police Station and re-registered under a new crime number in 2022. Justice Chandira recorded the submission and disposed of the petition with a direction to file the final report within four months.
However, since the investigation was not completed within the stipulated time, the association had moved the present contempt application in 2023. When the contempt plea was heard on December 22, 2023, a government advocate informed the judge that the investigation was completed and the final report was filed before the magistrate concerned on December 13, 2023.
On the other hand, the petitioner’s counsel S. Conscious Ilango accused the police of having filed the final report in a lackdaiscal manner to wriggle out of contempt proceedings. He also refuted the claim of the police that his client had appeared before the police on December 12, 2023 when his statement was reportedly recorded for nearly an hour at the police station.
When the government advocate produced CCTV footage from the police station to prove that the petitioner had indeed appeared on December 12, Mr. Ilango claimed that his client was in a film shooting at Mahabalipuram on that particular day and not available in Chennai at all. Stating that the petitioner had appeared before the police only on December 13, he accused the police of having submitted fabricated footage in court.
