Prayagraj, Oct 1: The Allahabad High Court has observed that police cannot unlawfully detain an innocent member of the family of an accused to put pressure on the accused to surrender.
A bench of justices Atul Sreedharan and Divesh Chandra Samant observed that such detention amounts to an unlawful deprivation of liberty and entitles the detained person to compensation.
The court allowed a habeas corpus petition filed regarding the alleged illegal detention of Arvind Kumar Yadav at George Town police station here.
The court awarded Rs 40,000 compensation to the petitioner for his wrongful and unlawful detention.
The bench directed that the amount be recovered from the salaries of the police personnel responsible for his illegal detention in such proportions as the state may determine.
An FIR was registered against the petitioner’s brother Suresh Kumar at George Town police station. Following investigation, section 109 BNS (attempt to murder) was also added to the FIR.
Yadav claimed that although he had no connection with the case against his brother, he was taken from his house in Jaunpur on June 23 to the police station.
According to the petitioner, he was released only around 7:00 pm on June 26.
In support of the claim, Yadav relied upon the Supurdginama furnished at the time of his release which recorded that he was handed over on June 26.
During the proceedings, investigating officer (IO) Ashvani Savita appeared before the court pursuant to its earlier directions and stated that on the directions of SHO Yogendra Kumar Singh, he and other police personnel had gone to Yadav’s house and picked him up on June 23 for interrogation in connection with the offence.
The state also did not dispute that the petitioner remained at the police station until his release on June 26 at about 7 pm.
The court had earlier directed the IO to produce the call detail records to ascertain Yadav’s location between June 23 and June 26.
Taking note of the material before it, the court said that it was undisputed that the petitioner remained in the unlawful custody of the police personnel for at least four days.
Accordingly, the high court in its decision dated September 9 directed that the court’s displeasure be duly recorded in the respective service records of both IO and SHO concerned.
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