Praveen Nettaru murder case: Court orders submission of CCTV footage

In a significant development, the special Court has issued a directive for the submission of crucial CCTV footage from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) office in connection with the alleged harassment of the accused in the murder case of BJP Yuva Morcha member, Praveen Nettaru.

The application for the release of the CCTV footage was filed by the main accused in the case, Mohammad Syed. The inquiry was conducted by a Divisional Bench led by Justice G. Basavaraja along with Srinivas Harish Kumar.

During the hearing, the Bench carefully considered the arguments presented and subsequently ordered the retrieval of CCTV footage from November 2022, held in the offices of both the Forensic Science Laboratory and the National Investigation Agency. The footage is expected to provide critical insights into the events surrounding the alleged harassment of the accused during the investigation.

However, the plea for the submission of call records of NIA officers was turned down by the Bench. This decision was based on legal grounds, citing Sections 124 and 126 of the Indian Evidence Act-1872, which explicitly safeguard confidential official communications between officers. The Bench stated that the call records could not be disclosed due to the sensitive nature of the information contained therein.