LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has ruled that an accused has the right to obtain a video recording of the alleged raid related to a case against him.
The court passed the ruling on an appeal of Iqbal Nasir facing trial of a narcotics case.
The court allowed the appeal and directed the trial court to provide a copy of the USB to the appellant.
The court said, in order to enable the accused to know exactly the contents of the USB and prepare his defence for rebutting the charge through cross-examination, supply of a copy of video record to the accused is necessary.
The court observed, under Article 87 of Qanun-i-Shahadat Order, 1984 any person who has right to inspect the public document can have copy of the same.
The maintained that an accused has every right to inspect the police report and documents annexed with the same except police diaries, therefore, the accused can obtain a copy of the document mentioned in and appended with the police report except police diary.
The court noted that the prosecution clearly stated that the video of the occurrence had been preserved in a USB, and it will be produced during trial for proving the charge against the accused.
As per the prosecution, a police official at the time of raid made video film through camera of his mobile phone regarding proceedings of the raid including arrest of the appellant which was preserved in USB.
The trial court dismissed an application of the appellant seeking the video recording of the raid.
The court regretted that the trial court could not appreciate this legal aspect while passing the impugned order.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024