A special court granted bail to actor Ajaz Khan’s wife, Fallon Guliwala, who was arrested by the customs department following alleged drug seizure from their residence in November 2024, as the officials did not follow the procedure to videograph the seizure, made mandatory under the new criminal laws. The court said that while there were CCTV cameras at the residence, the officials had also directed Guliwala to shut the cameras.
“… it has been observed by the Hon’ble Delhi High Court that the videography is mandatory under the BNSS Act (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita) 2023. Admittedly in the present case, no videography has been conducted at the time of raid.
Moreover, one thing cannot be ignored that there is CCTV footage in the house of the accused, but as per the contention of the applicant, she was directed to shut down the CCTV. If it had happened, the intention of the officer to shut down the CCTV create doubt regarding the raid,” the court said in its order on Thursday.
The special post intelligence branch had carried out the raid in November 2024, after the arrest of Khan’s staffer, allegedly for getting a parcel delivered carrying 100 grams of MDMA. The branch claimed that in its raid at the residence, commercial quantities of drugs were found along with Rs 11 lakh cash.
Guliwala’s lawyer, Ayaz Khan had submitted that BNSS has made it mandatory to carry out photography and videography during searches and although the residence had CCTV cameras, they were ordered to be shut, claiming that Guliwala was wrongly implicated.
“Though investigation is going on, further investigation cannot fill up the lacuna of videography,” the court said while adding that since the allegations involve commercial quantities of drugs, the bail conditions should include surety of Rs 1 lakh to be provided by Guliwala.
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