Gujarat HC seeks footage after man vanishes from police station

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Wednesday directed Vadodara police to provide CCTV footage of Fatehgunj police station along with earlier inquiry reports, in connection with the mysterious disappearance of 65-year-old Shaikh Babu from Telangana after he was summoned by cops last December.
After Shaikh Babu’s son, Shaikh Salim, filed a habeas corpus petition and the HC sought reply from the Vadodara police commissioner, the inquiry into the missing person’s complaint was transferred for the third time on Tuesday, this time to ACP-E Division.
The bench of Justice Sonia Gokani and Justice N V Anjaria ordered the ACP to bring Shaikh Babu to court on or before July 6, or in case of failure to secure his appearance, an action-taken report should be filed along with the CCTV footage from Fatehgunj police station, from where Shaikh went missing on December 10, 2019.
The high court also sought an explanation from the police as to why the CCTV footage did not form part of the earlier inquiry reports, after the son registered the missing person’s complaint. The HC questioned so after reminding them that it is mandatory to store CCTV footage of at least 30 days. Last week, the HC had ordered the Vadodara police commissioner to preserve CCTV footage from December 2019 to March 2020.
Meanwhile, the police informed the HC on Wednesday that Shaikh Babu was summoned in connection with an offence. The surveillance squad of Fatehgunj police had taken him in at 11.30am and that he was allowed to leave the police station at 5.25pm after making a note in the police station diary. After he the left police station, his whereabouts were not known.