Calcutta HC Orders Preservation of Election Materials in Ghatal Constituency

The Calcutta High Court has directed that all documents and CCTV footage related to the elections in West Bengal’s Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency be preserved until the election petition filed by BJP candidate Hiranmay Chattopadhyaya is resolved. Deepak Adhikari of the Trinamool Congress was declared the winner in Ghatal, where elections took place on May 25, 2024.

The court has ordered that, pending a decision on the election petition, all documents, devices, CCTV footage, and digital video recorders (DVRs) associated with the election in the Ghatal constituency be preserved by the custodian authority responsible for such materials.

A single bench of Justice Bivas Pattanayak directed the relevant High Court registrar to serve a copy of this order to the Chief Election Commissioner of India. The court stated that the petitioner’s lawyer’s request for a forensic audit of the CCTV footage would be addressed on the next hearing date, September 6, 2024.

Both BJP’s Hiranmay Chattopadhyaya and TMC’s Deepak Adhikari, who are film actors known by their screen names Hiran and Dev, respectively, are involved in the case. Chattopadhyaya’s lawyer, Billwadal Bhattacharya, explained that the petition challenges the election process on the grounds of alleged corrupt practices.

He requested an order to preserve records, including CCTV footage, EVMs, and DVRs from all polling booths in the constituency.