The Punjab and Haryana high court has termed a drug accused’s arrest illegal after he was arrested without written intimation to his family and also not provided legal assistance before being produced in court.
Event Context
He approached the high court, claiming that his arrest was illegal. The plea stated that the grounds of arrest were not communicated to him and secondly, the arrest memo was not served upon him, as mandated by law.
In another lapse, he was produced before court without affording him an opportunity to engage a lawyer of his choice to defend him, the plea added.
The court observed that the arrest memo showed that grounds of arrest were never communicated to the family members of the petitioner.
It also found that on February 10 when the accused was produced before the magistrate he was not being represented by any counsel.
Player Focus
“…firstly the grounds of arrest were not communicated to the mother of the petitioner (to whom information about the arrest of petitioner was conveyed) and secondly the petitioner was deprived of his right to have legal assistance at the time of hearing on his remand application in the court,” the court said.
Holding that the petitioner’s arrest was “illegal”, the court ordered his release.
Team Analysis
The decision by the high court bench of justice Surya Partap Singh came while allowing the habeas corpus petition of a Punjab resident, Sajan Singh, who was booked in a drugs case at the Sector-79 police station in Mohali on February 9. He was arrested in Ferozepur after police allegedly found 307 gm heroin in his possession.
