[BREAKING] Delhi Court rejects plea seeking police custody of Deep Sidhu in Red Fort case; Sidhu remanded to 14-day judicial custody

A Delhi Court today rejected a plea by Delhi Police seeking four-day custody of Deep Sidhu in Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)'s FIR registered over the damage caused to the Red Fort during the violence that took place on the January 26 tractor rally organised by protesting farmers.

. The Court, however, remanded Sidhu to 14-day judicial custody.

. The order was passed by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Tis Hazari Courts after Sidhu was virtually produced before it pursuant to the expiry of his one-day judicial custody in the matter.

. Delhi Police's plea seeking four-day police custody was opposed by the counsel for Sidhu on the ground that the arrest was malafide and an abuse of criminal process.

. It was submitted that ASI FIR was identical to the one in which Sidhu was earlier arrested and granted bail on April 16.

. The Public Prosecution relied stating that arrest was the prerogative of the Investigating Officer and he has the right to take police custody to do proper investigation.

. He contended that the ASI FIR was different from the first FIR and Sidhu's custodial interrogation was necessary in view of the "factual matrix".

. In its order, the Court noted that both the FIRs were registered on the complainant of different complainants, however, role assigned to the accused was same in both the cases.

. It added that Sidhu has the same role in the present as in the other FIR in which his police remand for 14 days had already been taken.

. Observing that a professional investigating agency like Crime Branch should not work in a manner that any ill will or malafide might be imputed against them, the Court opined that the police was at liberty to investigate the accused in judicial custody to "unearth the conspiracy" behind the offence.

. The Court held that no ground was made out by the Police for taking the police remand of Deep Sidhu.

It said,

. " The work of an investigating agency is to impartially investigate the matter. It is not appropriate that they would investigate the matter with any kind of vendata against any person who may be accused of any heinous offence..PC remand cannot be granted to trace a coaccused. It is to be noted that there are a number of co-accused in the present matter and PC remand cannot be taken to arrest each and every one of them. It is for the police to establish identity of the other accused persons and to arrest them from their hide outs. No PC remand is required for pointing out the place of incident as police is already aware of the place of incident and no new fact is going to be emerged from pointing out the place of incident. "

. The application for police remand was thus dismissed.

. Sidhu was subsequently sent to judicial custody at the request made by Police.

. Sidhu was represented by Advocates Abhishek Gupta, Jasdeep Dhillon.

. Sidhu also moved application for release under Section 167 CrPC and bail. Applications will be heard on April 23.

. Sidhu was arrested in the ASI FIR on April 17, a day after he got bail in the FIR concerning the Red Fort violence. Sidhu was first arrested on February 9 .

. The Additional Sessions Judge at Tis Hazari Courts on April 16 granted bail to Sidhu while observing that denying him bail would be in violation of his fundamental right to life and liberty.

. Read the order:

[BREAKING] Delhi Court rejects plea seeking police custody of Deep Sidhu in Red Fort case; Sidhu remanded to 14-day judicial custody

Aditi

Related Stories