India, Sept. 5 -- NEW DELHI

The Delhi Police on Thursday said that only formal police witnesses will be examined through the videoconference mode from designated police stations, and not material witnesses.

To be sure, a formal police witness in a trial is the officer who wrote or signed off the FIR based on the complainant's statements, or an officer who carried out procedural duties relating to lodging the FIR. A material witness, meanwhile, is the investigating officer (IO) of the case, who prepared the case's seizure report or the officer who recovered a weapon in the case.

The order, issued by the commissioner's office and signed off by special commissioner of police Devesh Chandra Shrivastava, said, "Only formal witnesses may be ...