PRAYAGRAJ, Nov. 8 -- Strongly criticising Uttar Pradesh Police over unlawful detention and repeated instances of non-availability of CCTV footage, the Allahabad high court has said that the civil liberties situation in the state is shameful and that police have little regard for citizens' rights. With this observation, a division bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Achal Sachdev in its November 3 order allowed a habeas corpus writ petition and directed that the petitioner-Afzal Ahmad of Bijnor- be set at liberty forthwith, if he is not wanted in any other case. The court also directed the state to pay Rs 20,000 as costs to him within seven days. The court said the police appear to have little regard for fundamental rights, adding that infringing these rights seems routine for the UP police. The court also held that the police could not use the excuse of CCTV malfunctioning in a case of alleged unlawful detention. The petitioner claimed that he was taken into custody by Bijnor Police on September 5, 2026, but his formal arrest was shown only on September 7. The petitioner's daughter alleged that police personnel and SOG officials in civvies forcibly took her father away from outside Bijnor's Nagal police station where both had gone after police called them regarding a case lodged against Ahmad alleging honey trap. According to the petition, they reached the police station at around 2:30 PM on September 5. While they were in their vehicle and had contacted the SHO, a car entered the premises near the police station gate. Four people allegedly came out of the vehicle, surrounded their car and forcibly took Ahmad away. To ascertain the veracity of the allegations, the high court had earlier directed the state to produce CCTV recordings of the police station from September 5 (from 1 PM) until September 7 (till 10 AM). However, when the matter was taken up, the state informed the court that the CCTV footage for the said period was unavailable. The state relied on a general diary entry dated September 5, which stated that a thunderstorm occurred and water trickled down the rain cable into the CCTV system, causing it to malfunction and fail. Taking a serious note of it, the court observed, "In case after case whenever CCTV footage are called for by this court, in large majority of the cases, it is the same report which comes stating that CCTV footage is not available on account of one reason or other." On CCTV malfunctioning, the court said any such explanation would be sufficient for it to accept the petitioner's contention that the corpus had been unlawfully detained and that the CCTV footage was deliberately withheld to maliciously obfuscate the truth. The court also said that Nangal's SHO Annu Kumari had deliberately not provided the CCTV footage. Recording its displeasure against the SHO, the court directed that the same be entered into her service records. It further said that the state should consider her further continuation on the current post....