Starting October 3, The Morung Express is publishing a series, “101 Things You Wanted To Ask About the Police but Were Too Afraid To Ask,*” an easy guidebook published by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) on knowing the police better. The questions 80-84 in the series are given below:
Can the police officer hold me at the police station or can I leave when I want to?
Unless you have been formally arrested, you cannot be held in custody against your will. If the police have summoned you for questioning you have a duty to cooperate with them and help them with their inquiries.
But the questioning has to be prompt and efficient and cannot go on and on. The police cannot make you wait endlessly at the police station. In such circumstances you can leave when you want.
Suppose the police officer does not let me go, what can I do?
If you are not under formal arrest, keeping you in custody against your will even for a moment is a serious offence. It is called illegal detention and either you or your family/friends can complain about the officer to his senior or even the magistrate.
Most importantly you can immediately go to the High Court, or even the Supreme Court, immediately and through your lawyer, family or friend file a habeas corpus petition seeking your immediate release.
What does habeas corpus mean?
This is a very old remedy meant to protect people against being picked up by agents of powerful rulers. It literally means 'produce the body.' It is a most practical remedy against wrongful detention.
The courts - either the High Court or the Supreme Court deal with it on an urgent basis. Once the court gets an application indicating a disappearance that shows that the victim was last seen in the custody of the police, the court will ask the police to produce the person before it immediately and release him if the detention cannot be justified. If the detention has been illegal then the court can even grant compensation to the victim.
Is there any other way of finding out about a person who has been arrested illegally and I don't know where he is kept?
Yes. You can file an RTI application at the police station asking for the whereabouts of the person. Since the information is relating to the life and liberty of a person the police are bound to give you the information within 48 hours.
Can a police officer arrest me without proper reasons?
No. Police can make arrests only if there are good grounds for the arrest. Say if a person is caught red handed in the middle of some wrong doing. There has to be a "good reason" for making an arrest. Just because someone has named someone else in an FIR, that cannot be a reason for arrest. There has to be something more in the form of evidence in order for you to be arrested.
Secondly, if a person is suspected to have committed a crime which carries a punishment of up to seven years then the police officer cannot make an arrest unless he is satisfied that the person needs to be arrested to prevent him from committing further crimes or to prevent him from tampering with the evidence. Whether the officer decides to arrest or not to arrest the person he has to give reasons in writing for doing so.
(To be contd…)
Source: *Written by Navaz Kotwal and Maja Daruwal, the contents of the book are reproduced here with permission.
To know more about CHRI visit:
http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org
Check Last Week Questions here:
