Ramesh Chennithala files fresh plea to produce all collected call records of COVID-19 patients

Kerala Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has filed another petition in the Kerala High Court seeking directions to the state government to produce all the call records of COVID-19 patients collected by the police so far in a sealed cover.

The matter is slated to come up for hearing before the court on Friday.

Chennithala, in his plea, said that in this circumstance, it is necessary to call for details of call detail records (CDRs) collected so far on the strength of Exhibit P-1.

"It is understood that, ever since the issuance of Exhibit P-1, in total violation of the constitutional rights of privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, CDRs of COVID-19 positive patients who are undergoing quarantine have been collected at massive scale and are kept with police," the plea said.

Earlier, Chennithala had filed a petition seeking directions to the state police not to collect call detail records of COVID-19 patients from any service provider.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had earlier informed that the police was collecting the CDRs of COVID-19 patients for contact tracing to arrest the spread of viral disease in the state.

Kerala Police are using the contact-tracing strategy to determine how many people came in contact with the COVID-19 positive patients and whether these people are showing any symptoms of the disease.

Vijayan had, during a press meeting on August 13, rejected the concerns about this move intruding into the privacy of citizens and clarified that there will be no intrusion into the patient's privacy.

( With inputs from ANI )