Senior citizen harrased, house razed, HC seeks CCTV footage from police station

Taking a serious note of the allegation that the city police detained a senior citizen over a false complaint and his house was razed when he was in detention, the Madras High Court directed the Greater Chennai City Police to fetch the CCTV footage of Kilpauk police station.

“The Additional Commissioner of Police is directed to secure the hard discs relating to the CCTVs in Kilpauk police station and preserve the footages in respect of the period from 6 am of January 11 to 6 am of January 13,” Justice AD Jagadish Chandira directed while hearing a petition moved by B Kalyanasundaram, a 62-year-old man.

The petitioner sought direction to the city police to take action against his illegal detention and demolition of his house. According to him, he has been residing in his house derived from his mother-in-law for the past 15 years. A woman named Haneefa had tried to purchase the property from her but the deal fell through.

Though the sale deed was not fructified due to some issues, the woman had started harassing me. She wanted me to vacate the house. She also lodged a false case against me before the Kilpauk police. With the complaint, the police an filed FIR against me and detained me on January 12 by 5.30 am. During my detention, my house was razed by JCB and I was let out on the same day by 10 pm after my house was demolished,” the petitioner submitted.

He filed a representation before the Joint Commissioner complaining the alleged collusion of the police with Haneefa. But no action was taken on his complaint, forcing him to move the petition.

The judge held that the nature of the allegation made by the petitioner, a senior citizen, seemed very serious, as he was being harassed with the aid of police personnel in a high-handed manner in detaining him in police custody and demolishing his house.

The court noted that Kalyanasundaram had on November 24, 2021, lodged a police complaint against Haneefa for allegedly threatening him with dire consequences. “However, without there being any action, the petitioner has been subjected to ordeal on the basis of the complaint made by Haneefa in a partisan manner, that too in a matter where a civil dispute is involved,” the judge held and posted the matter for February 15.