AMBALA: The district court of duty judicial magistrate first class (JMIC) Yachana directed Ambala superintendent of police (SP) on Monday, to take action against an investigation officer (IO) who arrested a woman accused in a case from Patiala in the absence of a lady police officer after sunset.
As per the information, Anju Bala, an accused in case 231/2021 registered against her under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Sector 9 Ambala City police station on December 27, 2021, was arrested by IO sub-inspector Krishan Lal from Patiala at about 6.50 pm on March 11, 2022. IO submitted in the court that the accused woman was evading arrest and therefore, it was necessary to arrest her after sunset in these exceptional circumstances.
The advocate of Anju Bala submitted that she was falsely implicated in this case and has been arrested by violating the provisions of Section 46 (4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The advocate said there was no exceptional circumstances existing to arrest her after sunset that too by a male officer. The advocate said no prior permission was taken from JMIC before making the arrest.
IO submitted that the accused woman was given notice on March 7, to join the investigation at the police station at 10 am on March 8 but she did not do so. IO demanded the woman's two-day custody for recovering cheat money of Rs 4 lakh.
The woman's anticipatory bail application was dismissed by Ambala district court on January 13, 2022, and the anticipatory bail of accused was dismissed as withdrawn by Punjab and Haryana high court on January 27, 2022.
"When anticipatory bail application was dismissed on January 27 with observation that custodial interrogation of accused seems necessary and the high court dismissed as withdrawn the bail application with the observation that the court was not inclined to grant the relief sought, what was the need on the part of IO to serve notice on the accused on March 7 than arresting her", said the court.
The court in its order sighted Section 46 of CrPC that, "...no woman shall be arrested after sunset and before sunrise, and where such exceptional circumstances exist, the woman police officer shall, by making a written report, obtain the prior permission of the JMIC within whose local jurisdiction the offence is committed..."
"The reason behind enacting this provision is to safeguard the modesty of woman and to protect them from alleged unnecessary harassments by the police. Even if a woman has to be arrested under exceptional circumstances, such arrest shall be made by woman police officer and prior to such arrest permission needs to be obtained from JMIC...Regardless of the offence which is alleged to have been committed by a woman, her modesty shall be given paramount importance and shall not be compromised", said the court order.
The court observed that the IO has failed to show the existence of any such exceptional circumstances to justify the arrest of accused after sunset and before sunrise.
"The case in hand is a classic example of violation of provisions of Sub Section 4 of Section 46 of CrPC wherein the arrest is made without following the procedure as contemplated under the Code and totally in disregard to the law laid down by the Supreme Court in DK Basu's case", said the court.
The court said Section 60A of the CrPC binds the police officers to follow the procedure prescribed in the Code before the arrest is effected.
The court ordered the release of arrested accused woman and declined request of IO for two-day police remand.
The court also disposed the bail application as infructuous and sought a final report on next date of hearing on March 29, 2022.
"SP Ambala is directed to look into the matter and to ensure that no such incident recurs. He is also directed to take the appropriate action against the IO, keeping in mind if the violation of law was committed to defeat the anticipatory bail dismissal orders", said the court.
