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The Madras High Court has questioned whether all police stations in Tamil Nadu are storing CCTV footage for 18 months, inquiring why the Coimbatore Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (V&AC) office only retains the footage for 15 days. Justice V. Lakshminarayanan requested the Director General of Police (DGP) to submit a report on this matter by September 10, 2026, emphasizing that even retaining the footage for one day less than 18 months would violate Supreme Court and High Court orders.

Senior counsel R. Shunmugasundaram, with the help of advocate Shakeena Abdul Gafoor, brought the court's attention to an affidavit by an Additional Superintendent of Police, V&AC, Coimbatore, stating that their DVR only retains footage for 15 days. The counsel referenced Supreme Court orders in the 2021 case of Paramvir Singh Saini versus Baljit Singh, as well as a 2024 High Court Division Bench ruling, arguing that former DGP assurances to preserve CCTV footage for 18 months were not being followed.

The petition was filed by A. Saravanakumar, Sub Inspector of Police, Civil Supplies-CID, Salem, who was accused of demanding a bribe from a person booked for smuggling rice. He sought a direction to preserve CCTV footage from the Coimbatore V&AC office for the period from September 15, 2025, to October 15, 2025, to prove the false complaint of corruption against him and to refute the prosecution's charges.

However, the V&AC office informed the court that their DVR could only retain CCTV footage for 15 days, making it impossible to secure and provide data for the requested period.