Court proceedings in Dr Payal Tadvi's case to be recorded on video

The court proceedings in the case of Dr. Payal Tadvi's suicide will now be recorded on video, the special court hearing the case ruled on Monday.

The counsel for Dr. Tadvi's family, Gunratan Sadavarte, prayed for video recording all the court proceedings in the sensitive case. "The victim's parents are in disagreement with the ongoing arguments. I request the court to start video recording the court proceedings under section 10 of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989," he urged.

To this, the special public prosecutor (SPP) Raja Thakare said, "Video recording should not be allowed." Sadavarte reacted, "How can a state-appointed SPP say that? It is unfair." Then the court asked Thakare if he wanted to respond to Sadavarte's argument, to which he said, "Who will bear the expenses of the video recording?" He was asked by the court, "You are the state, you are the police… and you don't want to follow this practice (of video recording)? The Act has to be followed in full spirit."

Eventually, the court passed an order saying, "Video recording is a must in this matter." Advocate Aabad Ponda, counsel for the accused trio, told the court they will provide a video camera for video recordings. But Sadavarte objected saying, "The accused have a limited right and they cannot enter into the administration of justice."

Here, the court virtually disagreed with Ponda's view and special judge B P Jadhav said, "Until the video recording commences, the hearing on the bail application is not allowed." Now, June 17, 19 and 21 have been fixed for deciding how the video camera and its accessories will be placed to record court proceedings. Meanwhile, the Mumbai police's crime branch failed to file its reply to the bail application of the accused trio. The cops will file their reply on June 17.

Trio leave court in tears

The judicial remand of accused doctors, Ankita Khandelwal, Hema Ahuja and Bhakti Mehare, was extended till June 21 on Monday. The next hearing in the case has been reserved for June 17. Inside the packed courtroom, the accused said the long dates have been causing inconvenience to them and they are not being allowed to talk to their parents. They left the courtroom in tears.

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