Jharkhand High Court seeks response from police after lawyer claims he was arrested sans due process

The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday sought a response from police authorities in Ranchi and Patna in a petition filed on behalf of a lawyer who claimed that he was taken from his residence late at night by the Bihar Police without following due procedure (Sweta Priyadarshni v. State of Jharkhand)..The issue heard by a Bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Ananda Sen arose when Danapur Police and Sukhdeo Nagar Police arrived at the residence of the lawyer, arrested him and took him to Danapur in Patna district. The lawyer's wife made representations to the State to no avail, and thus approached the High Court..It was brought to the Court's attention that after the petition was filed, the lawyer was released from police custody. However, the petitioners wished to address issues regarding due process not being followed before the arrest..The police submitted that the arrest of the lawyer was for his alleged involvement in an FIR registered under the Indian Penal Code, where he had been named and his anticipatory bail application was rejected by Sessions Court..Further, the Additional Superintendent of Police, Danapur submitted that on realizing that the punishment stipulated for the offences was less than 7 years, the lawyer was immediately released by service of notice under Section 41(A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)..After hearing the parties, the Bench was prima facie of the opinion that the procedure mandated was not followed before the arrest of the lawyer. It was observed that personal liberty envisaged under Article 21 of the Constitution can only be taken away by following due procedure.“This Court, after having heard the learned counsel for the parties as also the Additional Superintendent of Police, Danapur and the Senior Superintendent of Police, Ranchi has prima facie found that the procedure as stipulated in the Code of Criminal Procedure which is mandated to be followed before arresting a person, has not been followed.”.Therefore, the Senior Superintendent of Police, Ranchi and the Additional Superintendent of Police, Danapur/Senior Superintendent of Police, Patna were asked to answer the following queries:"(i) Whether serving of notice under Section 41(A) of the Cr.P.C. upon the husband of the writ petitioner after his arrest can be said to be the correct mandate as stipulated under Section 41(A) of the Cr.P.C.?(ii) Whether notice under Section 41(A) of the Cr.P.C. can be given after arrest of the person concerned?(iii) Whether the law laid down by the Hon’ble Apex Court in D.K.Basu v. State of W.B. (Supra), Aman Preet Singh v. C.B.I. Through Director (Supra), Arnab Manoranjan Goswami v. State of Maharashtra and Others (Supra) and Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar and Another (Supra) has been followed depriving from the personal liberty of the husband of the writ petitioner as mandated under Article 21 of the Constitution of India?(iv) Whether the husband of the writ petitioner was produced by Sukhdeo Nagar Police Station (Ranchi) before any local Magistrate having its jurisdiction at Ranchi for transit remand for allowing him to accompany with the Danapur Police officials?(v) Whether the husband of the writ petitioner was produced before the local Magistrate having the jurisdiction over the Danapur Police Station in the district of Patna after his arrest as mandated under Article 22(2) of the Constitution of India?(vi) What were the documents executed by the police at the time of releasing the husband of the petitioner?".The Court also granted leave to implead the Principal Secretary, Home Department, Government of Bihar as one of the parties..The Division Bench directed the replies to be filed before the next date of hearing and listed the matter on November 25..Advocates Ritu Kumar, Rajendra Krishna, Navin Kumar and Dheeraj Kumar appeared for the petitioners.Additional Advocate General Ashutosh Anand and Advocate Piyush Chitresh appeared for the State of Jharkhand. Advocate Diwakar Upadhyay appeared for the State of Bihar..[Read Order Here]