"Complete lawlessness, why enter his bedroom at midnight?" Supreme Court upholds bail to News 11 Bharat journalist

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Jharkhand High Court order granting bail to News 11 Bharat journalist Arup Chatterjee in an extortion case [State v. Baby Chatterjee]..A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli, while dismissing the appeal filed by the Jharkhand government, berated the police in strong words. "Complete lawlessness, what was the need to enter his bedroom at midnight? This is not the way you treat a journalist," bench said..The High Court had, on July 19, granted interim bail to the journalist after observing that he was arrested without following guidelines laid out in the Arnesh Kumar judgment, and in violation of the procedure for production of accused before Magistrate..The counsel for State argued that Chatterjee was wanted for questioning in the extortion case.However, the Supreme Court dismissed the plea while giving the government the liberty to approach the High Court in relation to other contentions.The journalist's wife Baby Chatterjee was the petitioner before the High Court and had approached the High Court alleging that the arrest was made without following the due process of law. .By way of background, the journalist's wife, Baby Chatterjee, had approached the High Court alleging that the arrest was made without following the due process of law..She had argued before the High Court that her husband was arrested at midnight on July 16, 2022 from their residence in Ranchi.Further, it was argued that the Dhanbad Police came to Ranchi without intimation to the local police, and without following the due procedure prescribed under Sections 80 and 81 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and arrested her husband from their bedroom at midnight..Additionally, she informed the court that the police did not issue any notice under Section 41-A (notice of appearance before police officer) of the CrPC.It was alleged that due to the petitioner's broadcast of a story against corruption, a first information report (FIR) was lodged falsely as it referred to the Dhanbad Police as 'highers shut the mouth of one of the pillars of the democracy [sic].'.Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi of the Jharkhand High Court had called for an affidavit from the State explaining its officers' actions."Prima facie, it appears that the direction of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Arnesh Kumar and DK Basu has not been followed and in those cases, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has gone to the extent that if the directions are not followed by the police officials, contempt proceeding can be initiated against the erring officer(s) in the High Court having territorial jurisdiction," the single-judge had observed..[Read order]