Court rebukes police for 'manhandling' murder accused during his arrest

The accuseds counsel informed the court on Friday that when his client went to the jail to surrender, unidentified persons, including police personnel, allegedly manhandled him and took him away in a car.The court had earlier sought a report from the police about the accuseds whereabouts and the status of the investigation.

A court here rebuked the Delhi Police on Saturday after it was informed that police personnel allegedly manhandled a murder accused and took him away in a car from the Tihar Jail compound, where he had gone to surrender. The accused was subsequently arrested by the police.

Metropolitan Magistrate Raghav Sharma said it was a clear case of ''misadventure'' on the part of the police and the power of arrest cannot, in any manner, be used as a force for threatening the accused. The accused's counsel informed the court on Friday that when his client went to the jail to surrender, unidentified persons, including police personnel, allegedly manhandled him and took him away in a car.

The court had earlier sought a report from the police about the accused's whereabouts and the status of the investigation. ''It is a clear case of misadventure on the part of the investigating agency. The power of arrest with the police authority is given with responsibility as well as a sense of duty on their part. The power of arrest cannot in any manner be used as a force for threatening the accused. While there is no doubt that the power of arrest is very much necessary for a proper investigation of the case, it has to be used with proper reasons and proper adherence to the procedure established by law,'' the court said in its order.

It further directed the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) concerned to sensitise the staff regarding the procedural requirements of arrests in accordance with law. ''In this given case, the procedural safeguards of arrest, which include showing the ID of the arresting officer and proper regard to the physical liberty of the accused, have been violated. In the present case, not only the guidelines have been completely violated, but also there is patent disregard to the spirit of procedural law,'' the court said.

During the hearing, the police said in their report that they had received information that the accused, Kartik, might come to the Tihar Jail with three-four associates to surrender before the court. According to the report, a team was deployed to detain the accused and as soon as the team members spotted him, the accused was put under detention and taken to the Subhash Place police station.

The investigating officer (IO) of the case also informed the court that those who had allegedly pounded on the accused were the staff of the police station. The court sent Kartik to judicial custody for 14 days.

An application was moved for Kartik's surrender in the murder case on December 12 and the court had directed the IO to file a report in the matter on December 23. When the IO failed to appear before the court on December 25, the court noted that it was a serious disregard of its orders.

''Not only did the IO not appear before this court, he has also switched off his mobile phone in order to avoid phone calls from the court staff. No report of the FIR, which was called by the order of this court, has been filed yet,'' the court said in its order dated December 25. ''This is a serious disregard of the orders of this court and cannot be tolerated at any cost,'' it added.

The application moved by advocate Anwar Ahmed Khan along with Purushendra Bhardwaj said on Friday morning, some unidentified people thrashed the accused and his counsel after they entered the jail compound through the police headquarters (PHQ). It further alleged that two-three police personnel also entered the jail and manhandled Kartik and his counsel, before forcibly taking the accused away in a car.

Kartik's counsel said they managed to record the incident on the phone. The court said it conducted a preliminary inquiry and questioned ASI (CRPF) Ranvesh Kumar, Home Guard Bhagirath and Constable Dattu More regarding the incident.

''ASI Ranvesh Kumar, on being questioned about the identity of the persons who had entered the compound and who attacked and manhandled the accused and his counsels, stated that he had checked the IDs of those personnel and that they were police officials. ''He has confirmed that those personnel attacked and manhandled the accused as well as his counsel,'' the order said.

''On being questioned whether entries were made in the register of those police personnel (whose IDs were checked by him), he replied in the negative,'' the court noted..