Custodial death case: Fresh notification to bring all Kolkata police stations under CCTV cover

Kolkata, Nov 19 (IANS) In wake of the alleged death of a person within the Amherst Street Police Station in central Kolkata last week, a fresh notification has been issued from the Kolkata Police headquarters to bring the police stations under all divisions of the city police under intensive CCTV coverage.

Following the instruction from the city police commissioner, Vineet Kumar Goyal, the divisional deputy commissioners have sent specific instructions to all the police stations under their jurisdictions to take immediate steps on this count.

The officers-in-charge of all the police stations have been specially asked to ensure that the office and other areas within the police station premises, which are accessible to common people coming to the police stations for various reasons, should be specially brought under CCTV coverage, said a senior official of the city police on Sunday.

He said that the officers-in-charge of all police stations have been assured of all necessary cooperation from the city police headquarter on this count and the fund required for purchasing and installation of the CCTVs would not be a problem.

It is learnt that currently 24 police stations within the jurisdiction of Kolkata Police are under the coverage of 900 CCTVs. However, for the rest because of some financial constraints further progress in the matter was not possible.

After the recent Amherst Street Police station tragedy, the legal experts and human rights activist groups started complaining about the absence of adequate CCTV coverage at all the police stations in the city.

They also complained that cops guilty of torture within the police station campus take advantage of the absence of CCTV there.

–IANS

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