AP cops erred in arrest of Ravi Kiran: Lawyers

Hyderabad: Despite several raps from the Supreme Court about illegal arrests from time to time, the police continues with their habit of hasty arrests,  which is evident in the arrest of political satirist Ravi Kiran. According to the criminal lawyers of the city, the AP police has committed an illegal act in the arrest of Ravi Kiran. The Apex Court held that a failure to comply with the provisions under the CrPC, apart from rendering the police officers concerned liable for departmental action, they shall also be liable to be punished for contempt of court to be instituted before the High Court, having territorial jurisdiction.

According to the criminal lawyers of the city, there was no sanction for police under any aspect of law to pick a person at their convenient time for his alleged involvement in an offence in which the maximum punishment is less than seven years. They said that any arrest made without following the due procedure under Section 41 CrPC would amount to an illegal arrest. They said that the AP police have violated the law in arresting in Ravikiran and the family members have a right to sue the police officer involved in the illegal act. Mr S. Pradeep Kumar, criminal lawyer, said as per the Supreme Court order, arrests cannot be made mechanically without following the due procedure contemplated under the CrPC.

He said that the arresting police officer was obliged to serve notice under Section 41(B) of CrPC, seeking explanation from the accused and after his explanation, if the police officer was satisfied that such an arrest was necessary – to prevent such a person from committing any further offence; or for proper investigation of the offence; or to prevent such person from causing the evidence of the offence to disappear, the police shall record the reasons for his arrest.

The police cannot simply take away a person from one territory to another territory of the state, it was mandatory on their part to inform the local police and seek help /support for arrest and the accused shall also be produced before the concerned magistrate and obtain a transit warrant to move him to another territorial jurisdiction, he added. Mr P. Nageswara Rao, another criminal lawyer, said that the police have to inform the family members of the accused as to the reasons for his arrest. He said the Central Agencies like CBI and NIA has territorial jurisdiction all over the country, but the state police have to inform the local police of the concerned state whenever they went to another state for the arrest of the accused.